Beautiful Items
by UndercaringUnderpaidNarrator
Summary: About one year ago, Amy gained two things. First, she gained knowledge of the future, observing the events of a man and a king as they helped each other move on in life and death. Second, she gained a purpose in life. She was suddenly responsible for a lost little spirit of her own, and without much other choice she set off to meet Yugi Muto. It was just the first step of many.
1. Prologue Part I

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: Ha. Disclaimers. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ was written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. I wish to call upon Fair Use to use it to practice my narrating skills and screw around in my free time. Doth I claim ownership? Ah [4filter] no - I don't want be apart of that drama.

Narrator's Note (Author's Note): Whatever you want to call it, I don't care, get creative. Just not Huggers creative. Because if that's the case, let's just all agree to never be creative again. Agh, alright. Yes, I am rambling. I'm nervous, okay? Yes text can get nervous, if I can get pissed off I can certainly get nervous. I've been trying to upload this for days, but I keep wussing out. This is my first fanfiction for this website for...you know, legit fanfics. But whatever, go ahead and rip-er-a new one.

* * *

**Prologue Part I**

Amy was running in the rain. She wasn't running away from a monster, she wasn't running in fear, and she wasn't running desperately for life. She was just running to get way from an old, mistaken man. This didn't appeal to her, really. It wasn't Amy's idea of fun, it was just some place fate had stuck her.

The rain got in her eyes. It was a grey evening, and had been a grey afternoon. Right now it wasn't quite night, but the time of day where everyone was in their homes, dry and bored, making the area terribly empty. She stumbled through the straight streets, not looking back, all the while knowing that he was catching up to her fairly easily.

Tired. Tired. Tired. The girl was so darn tired! She was tired from running from the fact that she existed, tired of walking, and stowing away on boats. This made her cranky, so she sincerely was far more angry than afraid. The girl had to take a break, leaning on the wall, blocking off someone's yard, running her fingers through her wet, tangled hair. She fiddled with the tight, minuscule braid clipped to the right of her face while scanning the area. There were walls and gates in front of every home. This trapped her like a mouse in one of those fun little mazes.

The goal of the maze is to find the cheese. The mouse runs through one set of walls, and then it's forced to take a corner. Our main character knew that she was the mouse, and all mice are fools. '_Who cares if I am a fool'_, that's how the short teen thought of it. There was cheese at the end of this maze. That cheese was worth it.

Through the maze, our new character moved slower than before. She just had to shake this little nuisance. Boy, was this little nuisance pissing her off! He was taking his time getting here because he knew this was a downhill battle for her, what a smug little old thing. Like a cracked ancient relic. He knew that he would catch up. He exhibited signs of being a cocky predator, over-confident and out for the thrill of kill more than the kill itself. Le Amy wanted to punch him in le face.

When they came face to un-punched face, it was at a dead-end. Residents had stacked garbage bags there, black, discarded bags of somebody who really didn't care. They were the greeting to anyone who got lost and found the dead-end. Our fictional, fan created, main character stared down at the bags. She felt an old habit that her American friend had taught her long ago creep in. She felt her fingers twitch. After a few moments, the short character, turned back around, folded her arms, and waited for Bakura to step on her tail.

It's a metaphor you morons. She doesn't actually have a tail.

When he did catch up, Ryo Bakura was just as Amy knew he would be. Well, anyone who has watched the series in slight moderation knows that this wasn't Ryo Bakura himself. It was the ancient spirit who dwelled within the Millennium Ring. I suppose I can't go into any further detail, unless I felt like spoiling the entire fifth season. Come to think of it, that does sound some what entertaining...unless you account for the fact that I doubt anyone who has taken the time to look of a freaking Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction hasn't already seen the entire first series.

"You dirk. Will you go away already? I'm not in the mood for this." Amy motioned bitterly. Oh how she wanted to clock him. That would, unfortunately, be futile, because he would never go away until he got what he wanted, struggle or not. She knew what Bakura wanted, because she knew everything.

"You have something I require." He said, in the demonic, slight British accent that 4Kids gifted him with.

_'So called it.' _

It is true, I'm not pulling your (metaphorical) leg. Amy knows everything there is to know. While the female, does not have as vast a knowledge base as me, your all-knowing, all-seeing, all spoiler spoiling narrator, she knew everything she needed to know about the future. It was not a special gift, or power, but more on that in time. I'm also your all-knowing, all-seeing information keeping narrator.

Bakura grabbed her arm, lifting her considerably shorter, lighter body a foot above the ground. Without kicking, yelling, or struggling, save for a deathly glare, he slipped his prize off her other wrist, then threw her small body on the heap of trash. She heard glass break beneath her landing. This proceeded without even a flinch on her face; too much frustration had already taken over to make any room for a flinch.

Bakura's menacing smile soon disappeared.

Now, it is my job to give you a descriptive, detailed, passage about what he had in his hand. Well, my little geniuses, it came from the wrist of a teenage female, what do you think it is? No, wait, don't answer that. I don't care about your answer. What he held was a bracelet, with that ancient color that seemed so much like gold, but much more. No rough points existed on the detail. It was sturdy, thick, but just the prefect size for a female like Amy. Then, there was an eye, smoothly carved out on it. You all know the eye I am taking about, the trade mark of a Millennium Item - the Eye of Anubis.

"This isn't a Millennium Item!" he fused, raging from those ridiculous shoes and up. "This is mealy fake!" He threw it back to the girl on the pile of black trash bags.

"It is not a fake you stupid derp," Amy hissed, slipping it back on, "but it's not what you're looking for. It's a bracelet, bra-ce-let. Do you see any spot on that stone for a bracelet? No, that's because there isn't one. Don't tell me that you didn't realize that, or are you just an even stupider derp the I first thought." She got up from the trash and stood on both feet. It began to drizzle.

Drops fell upon the angry spirit of the ring. He began to laugh that stereotypical evil laugh. He closed the gap between them and ran his hand down Amy's right cheek. "You have wasted time with this silly little game. You shall pay for that dearly." He picked her up by her collar.

She looked him right in the eye, not scared, but not having fun ether. Games. Children's card games. Dice. Capsules. Those might have been fun once, but they wouldn't be anything but trouble for a long while. These days, she didn't have an idea of what fun even was. "I thought you liked games, considering that's _all_ you ever do, you lame Disney villain."

He threw her against the wall. She hit it hard and slid down, as if time moved slowly. Moments went by, Amy sat, only peering up at him. "Oh, you used the same move twice. You're right…" she rubbed the back of her head and got up, "not Disney…you're more of a 4Kids loser…You'll never win if you collect the items like that." Her voice had cracked as she spoke, this time a wince making it threw her angry eyes.

The rain increased, suddenly harder than before. There was a flash of lighting. Bakura's left eye twitched slightly and the ring that hung from his neck started to glow, only to fade. A long moment passed where just stared at her, then he let out a laugh. Something must have clicked inside that senile head, as he proceeded to lean down and unclip Amy's braid. It began to unweave and strands of hair stuck to the front of her face. Amy tightened, a protective response to his touch. "Well, well, I never thought you would go through with it. How could I have forgotten that face, even if it's a little scuffed up, a little puffy. And that cheap trinket, " he did that thing where one eye was bigger then the other, "It seems the past is being reborn in more way then I expected. Have you come back to see me? Of course you haven't." He walked in the other direction.

The spirit of the ring only looked back at her slightly as he walked, "I do believe I'll get a bit of fun." Then he walked away, not to look back again.

The last thing Amy did was flip him the good old American bird.

(Don't get your hopes up too high. I regret to inform you that this part was not kept by 4Kids, and cut off the anime scene that you are picturing in your mind because it is a physical swear. I don't blame them, I wouldn't want my seven-year old watching a show where they flip people off. Oh, guess what? I can't have seven-year old kids, so I really don't give a hoot-and-holler! Screw them, I am text, and I am going to write what happened. So enjoy this moment while it lasts, before 4Kids edits it out of your little brains.)


	2. Prologue Part II

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: Ha. Disclaimers. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ was written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. I wish to call upon Fair Use to use it to write a fanfiction. Why? Because fan-freaking-fiction. Why not?

Narrator's Note (Author's Note): I was going to hold this chapter off because I had it done and it would have given me more time to not upload other chapters. However, I know the last chapter was short and vague and blah, blah, blah. I figured I needed something to kick the story into gear. But you know, if you still don't like it, wooh-freaking-who. Boy oh boy if I had a white flag I might just consider smacking you in the face with it.

Alrighty - if you're still around despite my bitter sarcasm, here are a few notes:

'Words' - In between single quotation marks represent a card name. (e.x. 'Mystical Elf')

_'Italics' - _In between single quotations and italics represent thought and/or inner mind mingling (e.x. When Yugi and Yami talk, and when Amy and Amiee Talk)

_Italics - _Amongst its other uses in grammar and fake grammar, card descriptions will be one in just italics. (e.x. _This elf is rumored to have lived for thousands of years._ )

* * *

**Prologue Part II**

And now we get to the part about the "love interest", because no one would want to read this if it wasn't a "love story". Who actually reads Yugi love stories anyways? Especially a Yugi and Pharaoh - whom I would love to say his name out loud (but that would be a "really bad spoiler") - and double Oc conjoined story. All included with "new characters" at every corner. The heck? Really? Go pick up a text-book, will you?

If you haven't pressed that darling little "x" in the corner of the page, then I might as well go on and do my job. Since you must be dedicated little pipsqueaks, I'll reward you with a personal thought of mine.

You see the thing is I don't mind Amy. She makes sense. When Amy got to the game shop, she knew it was late. You know what she did? She knocked on the freaking door. She didn't faint halfway there because no one would actually stop and help her. She didn't "pass out" in Yugi Muto's arms when he answered the door to cause a "dramatic love moment". She didn't do any of those stupid things.

Amy was soaked to the bone. She was tiered, but not weak. She stood at the door, and looked that short male straight in the eye. Yugi Muto responded to her with presence with a look of surprise. She just brushed the rain out of her eye, looked up at Yugi, and said, "I'm sorry Mr. Muto, I know that it's late, and I'm wet, but I would like to come in. We need to talk."

The girl realized that it was an odd time for strangers to come to the door. The shop must have just been about to close. So Yugi said, because we all know that he's too nice to slam the door in someone's face, "Do I know you?"

Amy looked at him, his soft face, gentle eyes, and she felt less mad. More serene. She remembered why she had come in the first place. That encounter with Bakura had put her in a bad mood, but that mood was slowly melting away. So much so, that the snippy comment that she was about to say disappeared. "No, you don't. But I know you well enough. You're…" Amy paused. She couldn't tell him that she knew everything. What had recently happened in the timeline that she could use as an excuse? Duelist Kingdom hadn't happened yet. Before that was… "the one who defeated Seto Kiba." she breathed.

And now we have a short time skip.

Do you like that? Time skips. They're a very handy craft. Although I occasionally hear that they make some people angry, but it's convenient for me so I don't really care.

Amy sat in front of the television holding a towel, the same T.V. that they would watch that little bug Weevil win against Rex. The thought made Amy wanna snap some glasses. Specifically thick framed yellow glasses that have stupid beetles on them or whatever. They would watch Maximillion Pegasus invite the duelists to Duelist Kingdom. That would be the first time they would hear about the tournament.

She used the towel to dry her hair a little, scrunching it back and forth a few times. She began to weave her side braid back together. Her wet clothes were starting to get cold to the skin and the towel wasn't helping much. She made a sour face and wrapped the towels around her wet arms.

These were the thoughts buzzing about her head: 'If I play this right, I'll be spending a lot of time here. It'll be like my new home. If I play this right, Yugi will like me, he'll trust me… so she can see her king again. I can finally lay her to rest. If I do this wrong…well, he could call the cops, I'll have to run for dear life, then stalk Yugi until he files a restraining order, which I'll illegally have to stalk him. Fan freaking tastic.'

_'I'll save you Amiee.'_

Yugi came into the room, and Amy relaxed. She started to zone out, making her face drop to a blank stare. In an attempt dry off, she placed the towel on her head again, and hid her face behind its fuzz. Stupid fuzzy towels never help anyone dry off, making them a pointless, waste of materials.

He handed her a white cup filled with a dark liquid. It could have been tea, it could have been hot chocolate, or coffee, she wouldn't have known. Yugi probably didn't know what else to do. Poor kid. She didn't drink it of course, but held in her hand to feel the warmth. That warm steamed kissed her face so gently.

"Do you want me to get you something else? It started to rain pretty hard out there you must be cold…" he laughed nervously. Okay, so he didn't laugh. There was just a tone of laughing in his voice.

I repeat. Poor kid.

I don't have to deal with such things because I am text forced into slave labor by being connected to a keyboard. Random awkward visitors are of no importance. Haha! Just one more reason it stinks to be living!

I have to tell you, it's in my contract, about how Amy's eyes traveled over Yugi's sweet face. It was gentle, concerned, and confused. Its no wonder anyone would come to love that face. But here's the twist, Amy doesn't love Yugi. Not yet anyways. At the time, all Amy knew was that he was useful.

Her eyes peered through the steam. "How about we play a game Yugi. You're good at those things, so what's the harm?"

She didn't wait for an answer, but instead pulled out her duel deck from a pouch on her belt. It had been safely clipped down on her journey over, and while this made all the cards undoubtedly unaccountable, it also made them wet. Yes, that golden sparkle in the light of all things Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist, the card game Magic & Wizards. Or, er, you and everyone else might know it as Duel Monsters. She separated them one by one, laying them face down across the floor. Hopefully, they would start to dry this way as well.

All was still for a moment. As Yugi opened his mouth to say something, Amy cut him off and continued. "The rules are simple. This is my deck. I want you to take out yours and shuffle. I'll draw the first card from your deck, and you pick one of mine. Higher star level wins. We do it three times." She looked into his purple eyes, knowing that her stare was quiet cold compared to his. Amy placed her drink down without taking a sip. "Spell and trumps count differently. You have to keep picking until you draw a monster. Each spell brings the star level up, each trump down."

Yugi Muto was going to be the King of Games, although it was not something he was yet aware of. Everything was merely starting in a cycle that would end with one ending. It had to end with one ending, if not everything would be a waste. As the King of Games, he could not refuse this game. But as Yugi, the boy who would start doing some serious school skipping, Amy feared that he would refuse the challenge.

Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Game King.

Yugi looked like he was thinking about this, and getting nervous, like he wasn't quiet sure what to make of the proposal. A girl, coming to your shop on such a night, demanding to play a game would be strange for anyone. Amy had never stated her name. For all he knew, she was here to steal the deck that defeated Seto Kiba.

Then, in a moment, the room changed it's feeling completely. It went from drab and mystic, to an ancient intensity. If you were watch the anime, you would have seen the transaction from boy to pharaoh, but Amy saw none of that. She only saw the figure sit up straight, and felt an aura of confidence warp around the short man, who seemed vaguely taller. In a voice that also sounded far more manly, and even as far as cocky, said, "I'll play on your game."

Amy smiled. She had figured it out easily. Yugi was now possessed by the real Yu-Gi-Oh. [Name Censor]. Silence followed, and Amy got up with a shrug. At least she wouldn't have to worry about creeping Yugi out now.

Her voiced relaxed, now that the atmosphere had changed to drastically. "Oh, now, that's not fun. I was going to show you first. I even had a cool line for it."

She wasn't as confident as she tried to make herself out to be. The last thing she wanted was to be mind crushed. No, no penalty game, no thanks.

It was then that the change was made. Her mental being shifted it's existence. Amy's consciousness moved out, like it was being ripped out of her body, and directly into a containment. Oh, how she disliked the containment. The whole process mentally unpleasant, but hardly noticeable to the eye. However unpleasant it was for Amy, she bit her lip and tolerated it, because there was another person who rose for their own containment. It was an exchange of freedom.

A new aura rose in the room. The childish aggression disappeared and the air thinned. The eyes on Amy's body no longer had the fiery determination in them. They were timid now, staring up to the eyes of the King of Games. Her body retracted and bundled together, mouth tightened nervously.

_'It's him.'_

Amy appeared by her side, in a transparent spirit forum that only the woman, myself, and you the reader could see. _'I told you I could do it.'_

_'But Amy, I'm frightened.'_

_'Oh no, I made it all the way here! You're not backing out now.'_

_'H-he's looking at me! What do I do...?'_

_'Say something to him.'_

"Hello m-" the possessed woman started to bow.

_'Amiee, stop right there! You don't say that! You can't spoil things!'_

"-mister Muto." she stumbled, catching her words and rearranging them at Amy's warning. "I'm ready to start now." To distract herself the situation, Amiee gathered up her cards from the floor. Amy rolled her eyes at Amiee's near slip up of calling Yami her king.

The man eyed her with slight suspicion, but none less drew his deck for play. They shuffled, then both set their respective decks down. Amiee ran her fingers through the pile nervously, the sound of flipping cards broke through her awkwardness. Her mouth opened and closed with the tension. Yet the Yu-Gi-Oh sat patiently.

He flipped her first card, a monster card right off the back. It was an old monster – literally in the sense of its age. A four star monster, Ancient Elf. _This elf is rumored to have lived for thousands of years._

Amiee reached over to touch the pharaoh's deck. She stopped for a moment as the tips of her fingers approached the pile. The man saw this, and starred in question. "Hm? Is something wrong?" the pharaoh's voice rang in her memory. Amiee calmed down.

His card was 'Gaia, the Fierce Knight'. Such a typical first monster for Yugi's deck, Amy's transparent form twitched at the cliché.

_'Of course that frickin happened. Honestly, nothing ever new ever happened with this deck, does it? Always the same [4fliter] pattern.'_ Amy muttered._ 'Don't worry about it. We still got two more tries.'_

The next draw was, of course, in Amiee's win. 'Pot of Greed', 'Book of Secret Arts', and 'Doma the Angel of Silence' for an offensive assault of seven stars. The pharaoh's six stars combo of 'Silver Fang' and three spells was trampled.

It was the third draw that made the air thick and heavy. When Amiee touched his deck to initiate round three, she brought to the surface a creature that would be a troublesome sign for many duelists in the future. Another cliché face palm.

'The Dark Magician.'

"My 'Dark Magician' has never let me down before. What will you do now?"

_'Yeah, yeah, I know. Trust me.'_ Amy muttered spitefully.

Amiee placed her hand on her heart. "Well," she spoke softly, "I suppose that I'll have to believe that I can. Even though you're the one flipping my deck, it's still mine. I think... I think that they'll stand behind me."

The card was 'Driving Snow'. A trap. Amiee held her breath.

'Book of Moon'. Her potential stars had evened out.

'Reload'.

'Monster Reborn'.

'Yami'.

The pharaoh flipped again. To the girls, the flip went so slowly, time around adding to the heaviness of the room. Amiee tried desperately not close her eyes as he place the monster card face up...


	3. Chapter One

[On Track]*[Extra/Non Extra]

Disclaimer: _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ ...Kazuki Takahasi...4Kids... Konami... something... bleh.

Narrator's Note: Alright, time to list the bull crap info no one cares about. You might see that the "Extra Notice" says "Extra/Non Extra". This means that only the first half of the chapter is an extra. More of Amy and Bakura. But which Bakura, well, who the frig knows. That being said... woo. We're actually getting into the plot here. It starts with episode two of the Duelist anime with, as titled by 4Kids, "The Gauntlet is Thrown", and the chapter cuts off part way through the episode. So there. Have fun. And I suppose I should mention the rate and review thing, so there, I mentioned it.

On another note : "~~~~~~~~~~" in the middle of the page represents an scene skip.

* * *

**Chapter One**

Amy put her feet up on the desk. She was supposed to have cleaning duty today. This wasn't the way to do it, but no one else was here to tell her otherwise. A manga rested in front of her face, the book occasionally being lifted up and she would flip the pages. Today was the day. Pegasus's video would reach the house and steal Grandpa's soul...blah.

She'd seen this episode before. While she didn't want to miss it, the event still wasn't for another hour or so. This is what Japanese teenagers did in their free time, reading picture books, cleaning classrooms, and doing clubs. The track team was finishing up their practice down below. Surely some of those kids must have headed home for the Regional Championships. It is sports? A mind quiz maybe? No! These kids were so eagerly scattering for a card game.

Amy packed up her things in her little indifferent book bag, pulling out her Duel Monsters for the trip home. They didn't exactly fit in her bag squished between the manga and doodle paper. After admiring for a moment how the room was barely clean, she tidied up a bit. In America the classrooms had been all dirt and spit balls, and skid marks on the floors from moving desks. She missed the wads of gross DNA flying past the chairs next to her. She only vaguely recalled the school in Wales, so it was difficult to compare that experience to this Japanese education.

She peaked around the corner of the classroom, looking solely for the other person who was on cleaning duty. She was sure that he would in fact mind her leaving, but she hated to look Bakura in the face and remember that there was an innocent boy behind the thief. Oh, how the Spirit of the Ring pulled at her last strings, his encounter annoyed her to such a point that when she first entered the school and saw Bakura sitting in the back quietly, her first intended greeting was walking over and trying to give the kid a black eye.

Self control, Amy, self control.

She let out a breath. The coast looked clear enough. Amy rounded the corner and started to move as slowly and quietly as possible. When her heel hit the school floor, it couldn't help but echo a bit, but still the girl proceeded without fear. She attempted to readjust her footsteps, but it was a fruitless effort that simply ended up with her tripping and letting her elbow have a pleasant chat with the wall. It wasn't a very loud conversation, the noise of the two masses crashing wasn't any louder than her heel-toe ventures. However, the same could not be said for her vocals.

When she hit it, the bone struck the school and Amy let out a yelp. And of course, a few choice curses in Welsh, English, and Japanese. The exit was a long ways away, but the girl slumped against the wall holding her elbow – going nowhere fast. If Bakura had been anywhere on this floor, he would have heard that.

"Aw crap..." one eye winced closed at the tickling pain. Rubbing the spot was pointless, but made her feel a little better mentally. You humans and your psychological nonsense. She looked left and right of the hallway for Bakura, and saw no sign of the little [4filter] yet. "I've still got a chance." Amy got flat on her feet and made a run for the stairs. "If I'm quick it can beat him to the punch. Won't have to worry about wanting to rip his innocent little face off. I can just avoid him..."

She rounded one, two hallways as she spoke. There was still a few paths before reaching the lower floor transportation. No sooner had the last words left the girls lips did she round the third corner.

And crashed into the scrawny man himself.

Their bodies flung in opposite directions, Bakura landed on his bum – injuring the hearts of some fangirls in the process, and Amy on her back. The only thing she injured was her pride (and hit her head a bit, though it wasn't nearly as damaging as her pride). But that's okay. That will happen a lot.

"[4filter]!" Amy said, her voice louder than need be. "Beth mae'r uffern?!"*

Bakura had let out a small yelp on impact and sat there on the ground rubbing his lower back. "Amy...? That really hurt. Why were you doing running around?"

"Playing friggin speed racer." she groaned, not yet ready to open her eyes or get up. She did however, begin rubbing the back of her head (I don't understand you humans and your need to rub unbloodied injuries – honestly! How does it comfort you?) where it had taken a mild whack. "What else could I possibly be doing?"

It seemed that Bakura didn't quiet know how to respond that, so he referred his answer back to the first half of the statement. "You know you shouldn't be doing that." he said.

The bloody innocence in his voice was absolutely nauseating.

Bakura got to his feet first. "Are you alright? Did you hit your head Amy?"

"Flippin peachy." she responded, finally opening her eyes and sitting up. First, she looked at the 4Brit, clearly frustrated by this turn of events. Then... well... the mess became clear. Cards spread everywhere across the floor, their dark backs scattered over the hall. It looked like a scatter of peculiar tiles were spread all over this one spot. There was more than forty lying around. Actually, it looked to be more like eighty.

Amy's frustration exploded. "What the bloody [4fliter]?! You made me drop everything! They're EVERYWHERE!" She turned on her knees quickly, and started to gather up the cards.

"Ah!" Bakura seemed genuinely shocked, "My cards are all over the ground!" He quickly got on his knees and started to pile them. Seemed quite frantic about it too.

"You're just noticing this now?! Come on Bakura, your helpless but not stupid. What kind of fan fic is this?! And don't just pile them up, my decks in here too! I don't want you ending up with any of my cards."

"R-right! Sorry!" he blurted.

The two sorted the card in silence for just a few moments, Amy stopped once to rub the back of her head again. Her head, her elbow, her cards, all pointing to her escape as anything but successful.

Eventually, Ryo Bakura broke the silence. Amy certainly wasn't going to be the one to do it. "Who were you trying to avoid? Is someone else around?" He held a thick stack of cards, all presumably Amy's cards near him.

Amy flushed. "Of course there are still people around. It's a school." She grabbed the cards quickly, looking into his eyes. They beamed with ignorance. Was it real? Or another ruse? It was so difficult to distinguish the thief from the boy, Dark Bakura was cunning enough to be able to play everyone for fools if he wished.

It was one of the reasons Amy hated him so desperately.

"Well whatever." she turned her head, putting the stack she picked up together with the one he handed to her. "See you later." Amy's tone sounds like an unsatisfied child.

Bakura merely blinked as she got up, and grabbed her still indifferent school bag; Amy squished her cards back in the bag and left all of his scattered on the floor. After a moment, she disappeared from sight and Bakura realized something.

"Wait! What about the classroom?!" he called.

He didn't get his answer.

**.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.**

"Good evin' duel fans and our ten million viewers at home. And welcome to the Duel Monsters Duel Dome, where tonight, the Duel Monster's Regional Championship will be decided." the television blared, going on to describe Rex and Weevil.

"Bug boy verses dinosaur breath, what kind of match is that?" Joey commented. There was a distinct excitement in his tone. "That should'a been me in there!"

Amy rolled her eyes a bit. "Yugi, could you slap your stupid friend for me?" She lay on her stomach, sprawled across the floor, while everyone else relaxed on the surrounding couches. "I can't believe this stuff had ten million viewers."

Joey continued on like the competitor he was. "Are you saying I'm not good enough?"

The whole room was about to see the icy sarcasm that Amy was about to use to ruin everyone time. Téa, being the angel of the group, cut in with some much kinder sounding words. "I know you've been training for weeks, but those guys are in another league. You're just not ready yet." Everyone smiled as she spoke. Everyone but Amy, she stuck her tongue out at the angel for being so happy and nice.

"Sure, rub it in." Joey closed his eyes in what appeared to be confidence, but they could all see the real reason for it. He was closing his eyes to rest them.

Yugi was the one to point it out, saying, "And on top of that, you're so tired you can't keep your eyes open. I think Grandpa's lesson have been a bit too tough for him."

Amy turned her body to look at Yugi. "Well he'd better not fall asleep on that couch, that's where I sleep."

One of those anime sweat drops appeared on Yugi's head. "Oh? You're staying here again tonight? You should really go home Amy..."

She reached over a ways and felt under the couch. It took a little while to find, but she pulled out one of her late night pocky stashes, making seven boxes under the couch now instead of eight. "Mm, but it's so nice here. Except for when some people fall asleep on my spot!" She took one piece of pocky out, and threw the box as she finished her sentence. It hit Joey square on the cheek. He woke up with a start.

"You see it's true what they say," Tristan said.

Amy flinched. "Oh god, don't say it..."

"You snooze you lose!" he finished.

The other rolled over on the the floor. "Ahg, y boen**! The stupid pun, it hurt to listen too."

Téa let out a giggle.

But Joey seemed to have taken it to heart, though, he was looking down now with a sigh. "I must have been nuts to think that I could ever learn this crazy game."

Amy rolled over again. This crazy game huh? It was funny to hear someone say that about Duel Monsters. Everything will go down around this crazy game. Everything has for years. "It'll make sense in the future.." she muttered, seemingly out loud.

"What was that?" Yugi asked.

Amy let out a yelp, "Nothing..! Nothing, nothing!"

"No." Yugi blinked, leaning forward, "We couldn't hear you. You were mumbling... what did you say?"

"I said, why does your grandpa have to run a frigging boot camp? Doesn't it seem kinda inhuman to go beating people over the head for this? It's just a trading card game." She blurted, coming up with a cover story in a matter of seconds.

Then, a new voice came from behind them, suddenly saying, "Inhuman huh?" This caused Amy to squeak in surprise, as Yugi's grandpa had entered the room just in time to hear the insult. "Without the proper training, one can not hone the mind and body, both needed to play Duel Monsters."

"Hone the mind and body? It's a card game old man!" Amy's voice changed to the one of her short temper, "You could convince me of practicing strategy, but there's no real effect it has on the body! What, can't handle standing for a few hours?"

"The stress of playing Duel Monsters provides both a physical and mental strain to the body. Every decision the duelist make's perspires to his or her out come. To succeed they must be able to handle the physical limits." he argued back, as calmly as he could.

Now, Amy got up and got in his face, meeting eye to eye – their heights matched up pretty well. Him having shrunken with age and her just never being tall in the first place. They were practically butting heads. "Strain, what strain? What part of children cards games don't you get? To look at numbers and see who has the highest number. You don't have to be physically fit to put a card on the table, it's not like we're fighting to be Shaman King or something."

When Grandpa was just about to respond, they were cut off by Yugi's scolding voice, piercing through the air between them. "Amy!" it said.

This made the argument pause, and come to an edgy stop. The female sank back down to her spot on the ground, only this time she sat cross legged and flushed; her gaze looked to the side, away from everyone else, her face showing the anger and embarrassment of the situation. Then Yugi's grandpa cleared his throat. "Oh by the way Yugi, this package came for you."

Yugi's questionable look was unmistakable. "A package? What it is gramps..?"

He brought the box over, going about Amy's spot on the floor. "I don't know, it just came in the mail."

"Huh..." Yugi responded, reaching over the couch to take the box. He searched for a label, and when he found one, it left him surprised. "It's from Industrial Illusions!"

Somewhere in the background that none of them were paying attention too, a small sigh came from Amy's mouth. Her lips tightened.

But sure enough, the gang was too excited. "Industrial Illusions, that's the company that makes the Duel Monsters game. Why the heck would they be sending a package to you, Yugi?" Joey spoke up questionably.

The conversation unfolded about Yugi's best guess being Kiba's defeat. That's how everyone knew him, the boy that beat the world champion. They recalled the match, and how Kiba dropped off the face of the earth, you know, because of mental damage that the mind crush had done – of course they didn't know that last tidbit of information. The mind crush, that would be a concept for someone some other day. How ignorant they were to the moral confusion Yami had left Kiba in.

Lots of people said that Kiba's penalty game was the beginning. But no. This package, this package be the will start all the hardship. Pegasus's video. Without this, Yugi never would go to Duelist Kingdom, which would never let him strengthen his bond with Kiba, which never would trigger such a battle for the gods.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Amy knows everything. She's seen it all unveil before her very eyes. All the triggers points are burned into her memory. It occurred to Amy, at that moment as the others watched Rex and Weevil duel, that she could stop this right now. So lost in thought now, Amy had unknowingly changed potions and was now cradling her knees. She could stop the cycle before it began. All of the pain that they would go through, all the tears and sadness, she could stop it.

Loosing Yugi to the Orichalcos, loosing Grandpa, Kiba, and Mokuba to Pegasus, the world being in danger. The destruction present day world faced as Yami and Bakura fought.

None of it would happen. Everything would be okay. They could raise money for Serenity's eyes...somehow. They wouldn't have to use the Duelist Kingdom prize money. There's no real benefit to carrying on as the plot planned. Just because some of the bad things didn't happen, doesn't mean they couldn't still discover the Pharaoh's past and put him to rest. There was no reason to fight through this first arc. There was other ways to do it. And she could still help Amiee...

All she would have to do was get rid of that package. At least the videotape. Then convince the others that it must have been set to the wrong address. Rewrite time. Fudge things a bit.

Without realizing it, Amy had buried her face in her knees thinking hard. To know the future...it can be such an undesirable burden. To have the chance to change everything...

"Amy?" Yugi's voice tore through her veil once again. "Hey, are you okay?"

She lifted her head suddenly, now brought back to the bigger picture of the situation she was in. The others were looking at her.

"You look upset.." Yugi was leaning over the couch side, "everything alright?"

It was taking a while for Amy to digest what was going on. She was frozen on spot, no answer, no wit coming to mind. She couldn't have made her fear any clearer.

Then, there was a saving grace. Something to grab the others attentions. Joey was leaning back, looking smug, "I bet ya` she's sulking about losing the argument earlier."

Her glass frame broke. She had something to go off of. "Shut up! I did not lose Brooklyn Blond, nor would I of! Weevil and Rex are both jokes, I just don't have any interest in watching them play is all. I'd rather watch a Corpse Party walkthrough."

"What do you mean jokes? They're are both pro duelists." The other female started.

While she hadn't been paying attention to the duel, Amy remembered this duel, she knew how it went. "What they _are_ is absolute morons. This is the_ Regional Finals_. There is no way Weevil would be dumb enough to play a 'Basic Insect' without a combination. Yet prehistoric brains up there is completely surprised when he finds out Weevil hasn't made a game costing mistake. _It's like this every fricking time_. The moment 'Basic Insect' came out, Rex should have been completely on guard. Instead, he uses his cocky victory line and calls it good, then is surprised when he lost. "

Yugi backed Tea up saying, "That was a good strategy. They're both incredibly tough opponents in the field of Duel Monsters, between their powerful monster, spell, trap cards and strategy."

"It's just a card game." Amy retorted.

"What do you mean, you play it too!" Joey said.

"Yeah, I play it. Its a _game_. What real life skills can you possibly gain by turning it into a life style? Or using it to solve all your problems? None!"

"Duel Monsters makes you strong!"

"Duel Monsters makes you cut class and get even stupider!"

"Who's the stupid one!?"

"Who the [4filter] do you think?"

"I'll show you who's stupid when I beat ya`!"

"Why would that settle our conflict?"

"Guys!" That call wasn't Joey or Amy, but Yugi's voice as he cut through the tension. "Joey, Amy, stop fighting. You two don't have to agree, Amy you don't have to like Duel Monsters, but at least respect that it's something Joey likes.."

Yugi was on the edge of his seat as he spoke, his small body getting up, hands held out as if to grab the conflict by it's tail. Joey had his deck in hand, waiting to play, while Amy's cards sat to the side, untouched.

"Let's open Yugi's package now." Téa suggested in an attempt to support her ship. The change of pace work, and Amy fell silent. The rest of the group huddled around the package admiring the gloves and stars. The short lass left for the other room for a moment, walking away as if she had no interest in the package. In reality, she hoped to use this chance to hi-...

hide...the...tape...

Frick.

"...it in and check it out." the blond said. Amy spun around at that moment, realizing her hand was quite empty. In her argument, she had forgotten to snatch the tape. Yugi readily agreed with his friend.

Too late Amy yelled to wait, the VCR had already swallowed it into is hungry belly and Yugi already sat down. After a second or two, the man's face appeared on the screen. His flamboyant long hair, brightly maniacal face, and Millennium Eye hidden away.

He needs very little introduction, ladies and gentlemen, Pegasus J. Crawford.

Okay, okay seesh. Don't yell at me you frigger, I'll use his English name. The only reason 4Kids changed his name was because apparently they thought we were all to stupid to get the fact that he was handsomely rich was if "million" wasn't in his name. Like the fact that he owned a freaking castle, and, oh, a freaking island that the castle was on didn't process through the audience's tiny frontal lobe.

Pissy readers, Maximillion Pegasus. Woo.

"Greetings, little Yugi. I am Maximillion Pegasus." he spoke through the screen.

The group seemed confused for just a moment, Joey going as far as to repeat his name and Téa being the broken record she is announced the repetitive knowledge that "we had just seen him on TV", as if it was some kind of foreign concept that the Regional Finals had been live and this tape was per-recorded. God I hate her. Anyways.

Amy started to walk over the VCR. "Hey um..." she tried to say.

"The famous Maximillion Pegasus sends greetings to my Yugi?" Grandpa responded in disbelief. It was clear that no one had heard her. Except Pegasus. He smirked see her futile efforts, amusement gleamed in his visible eye, and his hidden eye flashed through the strands of silver hair. There was no way she would convenience the group to turn it off now, and the antagonist knew that. So did our protagonist.

Then Pegasus continued his lines, "I've heard some terribly interesting things about you, Yugi." Only giving Yugi time to gasp before he continued. "Your impressive defeat of Seto Kiba intrigued me so much I've decided to investigate your amazing dueling skills personally."

Amy's temper flared up, and she marched through the group, pushing Tea aside as she reached for the stop button. "Alright, that enough of that bull! You guys can't actually believe this is re – ouch!" The VCR shocked her hand. Amy pulled it back and held it to her chest, a little afraid of it happening again.

"Oh, and why not?!" Joey burst, "He's got every reason to be impressed. Yugi's the best duelist I know! Maybe Pegasus is on his way right now to meet him!"

Amy argued back instinctively, "Meet him and do what? He's good, but he's not a pro. There's no reason for the creator of Duel Monsters to talk to him. It's a scam. A fake."

This time, to Amy's surprise, it was Tristan who bit back. "Are you sure you you're not just jealous of Yugi, because Pegasus is impressed with him and not you?"

"What?!" she fumed, "I HATE Duel Monsters."

"Then why do you care so much?" Téa chimed in, crossing her arms. "The tape has nothing to do with you. It was addressed to Yugi. Come on, this could be a once and a lifetime opportunity for him."

Amy felt like she was being surrounded. No one would support her. You know what she also hated? Being ganged up on. For those of you who are keeping track of her likes and dislikes, be sure to note that. "You don't even know what he's going to say! Stop assuming it's something good! You guys are all idiots!"

"Everyone be quite." Grandpa said sternly, and the room fell to his demand. "If the creator of Duel Monsters has something to say to my grandson, then it must be important. Let Yugi watch the tape." And that ended the augment. Not knowing what else too do and feeling defeated beyond words, she stood there.

Pegasus seemed to wait with ever growing amusement, even letting out one of his chuckles. He even stopped his speech to watch Amy make a fool of herself. When everyone had their attention back on the television he continued, "Right here, right now, we shall hold a 'special' duel. We'll play with a strict time limit of fifteen minutes, and when the times up; the player with the highest life points will be the winner. Are you ready?"

Yugi stared intensely at the screen, as he had been doing the entire time the group was malfunctioning. His eye only widen to question what the rich man had said.

The others seemed confused and yet amazed. "He can't seriously expect you fight a duel against a video tape?!"

"That's crazy!"

"No..." Pegasus said, his ancient eye opening up to the world.

Amy mustered up her courage and reached for the VCR, knowing this was her last chance.

"It's magic!"

Then Grandpa's body keeled over lifeless.

* * *

*"Beth mae'r uffern?!" roughly translates to "What the hell?!" in Welsh.

**"y boen" roughly translates to "the pain" in Welsh.

I apologize is my use of Welsh is incorrect, I'm pretty rusty in it and self taught.


	4. Chapter Two

[On Track]

Disclaimer:

_First we start Kazuki Takahashi and mix with Nihon Ad System, a pinch of dub can do no harm and 4Kids is good to mention. Stir it all up in a great big cup and shake it with a lawsuit, then we'll top it off with Dan Green's voice cause that's the magic potion. Then we try it out to see if we should add Konami. There's really nothing to it. There's really nothing to it. All we do is followwww, this recipe for Yu-Gi-Oh!_

Disclaimer for the Disclaimer: Yes, yes I did parody the 1997 animated Pippi Longstocking movie. Specifically the "Recipe for Life" number.

Narrator's Note: Yes, I know I've gone like a week without uploading! I'm not sorry! I'm never sorry. _Ever. _Anyways, I wen a week trying too edit this freaking chapter and I bet there are still a tone of mistakes. A few grammatical quarrels on my part: I couldn't decided whether or not the phrase "the Pharaoh" should be "the pharaoh" or "the Pharaoh". In the end I decided that it was being used as a title rather then a description so I capitalized the "P". And I know I keep switching between Passive Voice and Aggressive Voice, so for those of you whom are ripping life apart grammatically, heads up that my consistency is poopoo.

That all out of the way, this chapter continues with "The Gauntlet is Thrown". I would say "Enjoy!", but I really don't care enough. I would also say "Rate and Review?" but again, look at all the [4filter] I give.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Everything's growing dark and cold and the others aren't moving! What have you done to them?! Where have you taken us?!"

It was Yugi's voice. His small vocals rang through the empty dimension, sounding astounded, and surprisingly demanding. The group behind him seemed to move farther away, a gap widened between Yugi and his friends. Yugi couldn't tell whether they were really being pulled farther away or if it was a trick of his mind.

"We are no longer in the world you know..." Pegasus said with a chuckle. "But I will return you and you're little friend...after our game!"

"My friend?" This made Yugi turn towards the man, and then snap his body back around. Was one of the others conscious?

The answer is yes by the way. Of course. And it's the OC so..surprise. But it's not Amy, it's the secondary OC. You've seen her once before in "Prologue II" for a brief time. She was the one that played the game with the Pharaoh. The shy, timid one. Amiee. The spirit of the Millennium Bracelet. Yes, I know, there's "no such thing as a 'Millennium Bracelet'". We've been through this already with the Spirit of the Ring and the rain thing. There's a perfectly good – and pretty predictable – kinda cliché - explanation. But not right now. I'll save that tid-bit for the scene on the roof later. Now, let's just watch the anime, alright?

A light engulfed where Amy stood, the source emitting from her bracelet. When the light faded, color began to return to Amy's forum. Only she seemed... different. Taller. Her face became a little more lean around the cheek bones. As soon as she became mobile again, the figure retracted her arms to chest, cocooning herself from the world.

"It's... It's the Shadow Realm..." she said sheepishly, looking up at the endless void.

"Amy?" Yugi called. "Is that you? Are you alright?!"

Amiee didn't respond at first, not being used to being called by her alter ego's name. Yugi called again, this time Amiee, realizing the situation, responded to him. "Um...Yes..I'm fine."

Alarmed by the fact that his friend, usually filled with hot air, squeaked instead of shouted, Yugi responded, "Are the others okay?!"

Amiee tightened. "I don't... I don't think so..." She waited to hear Amy's voice respond sarcastically, but nothing came. Her spirit was frozen from this place like the others.

"Hang on."

"No!" she blurted. "Stay there."

"But Amy.."

She shook her head persistently, hoping to show some kind of determination. "You.. have to duel him! We'll be trapped here if you don't. The others will stay in this state."

The boy wasted no time. He nodded at her words, and turned around quickly to face Pegasus. Determination flare from the boy. "Then it's time to duel!"

And in a second, Yugi had changed. His spirit was pulled back and replaced with a new one. The two switched in that lovely animation sequence that Amiee could not see, but me and you can. The one where Dan Green screams "Yu-Gi-Oh" and becomes one of them most attractive things many 1990's children saw in their childhood. It was like a magical girl transformation, only with an attractive male instead of a blond Mary Moon Sue.

An array of confidence now flared, the Pharaoh's smug smile declaring the start of the game, using the voice talents of Dan Green himself.

"Start the clock and make your move Pegasus!"

This didn't frighten Pegasus like it had those poor chaps in season 0. "Certainly...let's begin!"

And the time on the digital clock began to tick down.

"Nervous, Yugi-boy?" Pegasus said while placing a card on the table. "You should be. You've never face a duelist like me before..."

Yami picked up his card, starting his turn, and continued the conversation. It was clear that neither side had any fear of the other. The Pharaoh seemed as if he hardly noticed the pressure of the Shadow Realm, as if it was second nature to him. It was like home here.

The conversion continued on. "...but I will beat you to save my friends..." Dan Gr- er – Yami Yugi stated confidently, choosing a card from his hand to play

The aura around the area warped a little more. Behind his hair, Pegasus had activated his eye, staring into Yami's mind. "You won't save anyone with that dragon card!"

Yami's eyes widened. "How?!"

"I told you" Pegasus grinned again, "you've never faced anyone like me before. I know every move you'll make before you can even make it."

"Yugi." Amiee called softly from afar.

Yami turned his body, cringing a little. It was easy to see he was frustrated by Pegasus's accurate prediction.

"Don't let him get to you, all he can do is anticipate. Just duel."

Now Pegasus frowned, "Now why would you say that and spoil everything? You're too harsh on me, my dear." He held a card up, "I suppose that I'll just play this then."

A light beamed from the television, engulfing Yami Yugi, then narrowing down to his card. "This 'Dragon Capture Jar' will draw the 'Koumori Dragon' from your card and imprison the beast!" The light faded, and Koumori appeared for just a moment, like the holograms on the television program had done before, then disappeared.

Pegasus laid down his 'Dragon Piper', then directed his attention to Amiee. "Since you love to spoil all my fun, I'm sure that you are going to tell him. About where we are, about what we do?" The 'Dragon Piper' appeared on the field. "About what we are wearing?"

"What's he talking about?" Yami asked, looking back at Amiee once again.

Amiee didn't say anything, having both pairs of eyes on her suddenly made her freeze up. Especially nerve-racking was the Pharaoh's confused and frustrated stare piercing her. Her heart rate began to pick up, and her face began to flush. Amiee's nerves had her frozen.

This made Pegasus laugh, his eye glowing again. "Don't stare so hard Yugi-boy, you're scaring her. Since she seems incapable, I'll have to explain it for her." Yami turned back to Pegasus. "This is the Shadow Realm, and everything here is very much real, and alive. Like this – 'Dragon Piper', play your Flute of Resurrection and release 'Koumori Dragon' to me!"

The sound of the Piper's song played as Pegasus spoke, and with a cry, Koumori faded back on the field. Now that the attention was off her, Amiee's shoulders relaxed.

Yami was forced instantly onto the offensive. "I have to counter attack!" He threw his Silver Fang monster card on the field, and in moments it was engulfed in the 'Koumori Dragon's flame. However, It wasn't just 'Sliver Fang' that felt it, Yami himself could feel the heat that surrounded him. His life points also took a **500 point** burn.

**Pegasus: 2000 lp**

**Yugi: 1500 lp**

The flame died down, and Pegasus reached for another card. "Very real indeed."

"Yugi!" Amiee squeaked in a panic, taking a few steps forward.

He didn't answer her call of concern, but instead grunted and spoke to the other duelist. "What was that?!"

Pegasus laughed again, "Magic Yugi-boy. Dangerous magic."

The expression on Yami's face turned stale. He listened to the man's laughter with an unchanged scowl.

"This is quite fun, watching you scowl and sneer. What about you?" the flamboyant man gestured again to Amiee, "Are you going to scowl at me too? Or are you too frightened? Scared of me? Scared of what you might say, that you might alter what is too be?"

Pegasus's life point count appeared untouched on the screen. Time was ticking down, and Pegasus continued to waste it. "Your friend doesn't seem to share the same feelings. I saw her reach for the tape. She doesn't seem to understand the gravity of this time stream. But you know better then that. You know you can't distort the time stream too much, or else risk the lives of everyone you care about."

Amiee flinched at his words.

"Pegasus." Yami's harsh, demanding tone cut in. "Leave Amy alone. Your fight is with me."

"Well aren't you the knight in shinning armor. I'm so glade I came to Japan. It's just so entertaining" Pegasus shrugged, laying a card face down. "Fine then. The time is ticking after all, might I suggest we get back to our duel?"

Amiee watched her friend stare at his hand for a moment, and lift a card from the rest. From a distance, she couldn't see what it was, but whatever it was, it made Yami hesitate. The other man only smirked (if you want to call him a man, personally I'm not sure it's the correct adjective), and moved his hand up. He held his hair out of his face, and for a moment, Amiee and Yami could see it.

The Millennium Eye.

After that, Yami slid the card back in with the others. Amiee couldn't see his face, but since I'm the narrator, I could – and from a handsome profile angle too. Yami smirked, a sly idea coming to mind.

I'm really not in the mood to narrate to you about his thought process. Something about Pegasus being able to see his move coming and getting an idea or something. I'm not your nanny, just your narrator. If you want to know so bad, look it up yourself.

"Hurry up now, Yugi-boy. Time is running out – for you and your friends."

Then, Yami did something that was surprising. Amiee saw, from his back, his arm reach to his deck. But rather than it move up to where his hand would be, Yami placed it straight on the field.

Pegasus seemed too arrogant to notice. "I already know you plan to play the 'Zombie Warrior'..."

"You're wrong." The voice was Amiee's. It cut across the Shadow Realm.

"Mm?" Pegasus's eyes narrowed.

"She's right Pegasus," Yami said, placing his hand on the card. "I figured out your little game, you may be able to see the cards in my hand, but you can't see the cards I pull from the deck."

Yami flipped the card over with confidence, completely assured that his deck had provided him with the right card. "My next card is... the 'Dark Magician'!"

This move failed to shake Pegasus's arrogant mannerism. "Ooooh!" the man's face and body language flirted with the line of sarcasm, "The big, scary 'Dark Magician'!"

Unfazed by this, Yami continued, "Mock me all you like, Pegasus! But my magician will destroy that dragon!"

"Go ahead if you think it will help."

Neither side was showing any doubts. Yami was positive that Pegasus was bluffing, and the latter didn't let on any hint that he might have lost control of this duel. The clock struck six minutes.

"It'll do more then help, Pegasus. It'll bring you closer to defeat and bring me closer to saving my friends!"

Pegasus took a moment to look past Yami, and took in Amiee's reaction. She was looking to the side, her face riddled with guilt. The he smiled and closed his eyes, "If it can do all that, by all means play it!"

So Yami called his 'Dark Magician' from the card, and it entered with an intense spin of powerful wind, staff held up in had. The monster pointed that staff down to Pegasus's card, completely ready for the offensive. With an order from Yami, the 'Dark Magician' shifted his body to the left and held out his hand instead of his staff (which, if he attacks with his hand anyways, I fail to see what he has a staff in the first place, but hey, that's just me being bitter). And then Pegasus's monster was shattered into a million pieces.

**Pegasus: 1200 lp**

**Yugi: 1500 lp**

So, I know I'm getting off track and everything, but can I just point out something that bugs me. Am I the only one who noticed that the _Dark Magic Attack_ looks really freaking similar to a mind crush? You know, without the Eye of Anubis symbol and crap like that. The monsters are real here that the dragon just got freaking mind crushed and into a million, billion pieces _and_ his brain was mashed. That's cold 'Dark Magician'. On the up note, it makes him and the Pharaoh a perfect match.

Anyways, back to this fun little duel, my personal thought interrupted Pegasus's laugh. Now he's saying that Yami played into his hands again. And now Yami looks shocked, and now... aw hell, I'll just go back to telling it the right way.

"By playing that one card you have ensured my victory!" the silver haired man boasted.

The camera transitioned to Yami, who objected with stern determination (there's a lot of that going around these days isn't there. Determination I mean.), "No."

"We'll see, Yugi." Pegasus said. Amiee mouthed the words as he spoke them. "Oh! A very rare card!"

Turning the card around, it was revealed to be the three headed 'Illusionist Faceless Mage', a spellcaster who _manipulates enemy attacks with the power of illusion. _Two of it's three heads were disturbingly bland, while they had facial features, those facial features were lifeless. The middle head was filled with life, but was bare of any features save a mouth that smiled as if it were eager to add to it's collection of faces.

Yami's poker face momentarily broke to show shock. "I've never seen that card before!" A milliseconds after speaking, his expression reverted back to the state it was before. "But my 'Dark Magician' is one of the strongest magic cards in the game." I'm pretty sure he meant to say monster, but you know, yahoo to the dub and all that.

Amiee clasped her hands together. _'You know there's more to a monster card the just it's physical strength.' _she thought, but didn't dare say out loud.

As if reading her thoughts, which is a funny phrase considering the circumstances, Pegasus put another card down on the field. "But how will he fare once I combine my 'Faceless Mage' with the with the equally rare 'Eye of Illusion'?"

As he spoke, the mage reached out the card, cackling a high pitched noise from it's bare head. Amiee flinched at the sound of it. In the unconscious portion of her mind, that laugh began to trigger a memory. Her face dropped to blank stare, and paled a little. It wasn't a casual memory, but a terribly frightening one.

A boy and girl. A third friend.

Her preconscious re-suppressed the memory back to her unconscious mind, cutting off the visual before it could get any further. Amiee's face contorted with fear. Something about the memory seemed so familiar, so important, yet it had stopped before she could place place why. There was nagging feeling, her body calling for her to remember the rest to complete it's reaction, and her mind completely denying her body of it's request. And oh, her body was reacting. Amiee's hands lifted themselves up to her neck and wrapped all ten fingers around her throat. From there, her muscles stiffened up, unable to move, save for her trembling.

Yet, Amiee had no idea why she was so frightened.

Despite how for Amiee, this event felt like it went on forever, for the two duelist the clock had only gone down a few seconds. Yami quickly called out his 'Dark Magician' to attack as soon as the 'Faceless Mage' emerged. The 'Faceless Mage' defended from it, an eye coming up to shield it from damage. Smoke spread around the field, and piercing through it was the light of Pegasus's Millennium Eye. The item was attracted to the vision, and of it's own accord, looked into Amiee's mind. Pegasus cried out surprise as he witnessed the same brief visions as she did. And then, the eye went deeper, into her unconscious. The rich man saw more than even Amiee herself did.

When the smoke cleared, Yami yelled out for the 'Dark Magician'. The field still housed both monsters._ 'My attack had no effect at all. His 'Faceless Mage' should have been destroyed!' _Yami thought. He shifted his gaze around the field, and caught a glimpse of Pegasus's face, and Yami's eyes narrowed._ 'Why does he looked so shocked? Isn't think what he wanted to happen?' _

The clock on the VCR read five minutes.

Then Yami gasped, as it occurred to him that Pegasus wasn't looking at the field, but past it. Past him. To his friend. So Yami spun around.

"Amy?!"

Amiee was still frozen, fingers held tightly around her neck, her eyes widened with emotion, breath trembling in sync with her body. She didn't hear the Pharaoh's call, too wrapped up in her own head to comprehend anything that was going on outside her body. Another image leaked through her consciousness, this time an effect of the Millennium Eye's prying.

The three young Egyptian children were standing together. Two them stood forward, and the third hid behind the others. Half of each child's body was hidden in shadows. She couldn't identify them at all.

Four minutes were left on the tape.

"Amy!" he yelled again, still lacking any kind of response.

Within moments, the pharaoh, without even putting his hand down, rushed in front of Amiee. He put his hands on her shoulders, the cards pressing against her. "Amy? What wrong?"

Three minutes now.

On the other side of the screen, Pegasus's eye stopped glowing, his hair that had been separated fell back into place. He didn't smile, or look smug, all of that had been drained out of his face. He held his hand up to side of his head. The violent sudden bust from the item had drained him. Still, Pegasus stood tall, frowning, but standing tall none the less. It seemed he was trying to process what he had seen.

After calling Amy's name several more time, Yami turned to Pegasus, yelling in the enraged, protective tone of Dan Green. "Pegasus! What have you done to her?"

Two minutes.

"Tell me!"

"I haven't done anything. This is your friends doing all on her own."

Yami turned back to her. His grip on her shoulder tightened. He called Amy's name again, only this time, physically shaking her shoulders. "Amy!"

Amiee's hands began to loosen. Her eyes went wider for just second, then she dropped her hands from her neck and slumped down on the ground. Now, she was breathing in deep breaths, each breath calmer than the last.

One.

Yami also keeled down, keeping her at eye level.

_'Pharaoh...?'_ Small drops of tears began forming in the corners of her eyes. While she thought the word pharaoh, the name that actually escaped her voice, broken and high pitched was "Yugi...?"

Yami nodded, loosing his grip on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

She felt the tears sting and she tried to keep then from falling as she nodded. What Amiee wanted to do was bury her her face in his chest, but then she remember where she was and gasped. From over his should, she could see the counter on the video. It read thirty seconds.

And Yami's life points were still higher. "You have to finish the duel!" Amiee yelled, frantic removing his hands from her arms. "You've only got thirty seconds left!"

At this rate, the clock would run out of time and Yami would win, altering the course of history. While that was what Amy wanted, it wasn't what Amiee wanted. Yugi needed to lose.

Yami nodded, quickly and angrily turned back to the duel, and reached his deck, immediately drawing from it. "Pegasus! I'm tiered of your games. I will defeat you!"

Pegasus said nothing. He had lost his amusement with this duel, too tired, too drained.

This didn't bother the other duelist, as he continued on strong. "I summon my 'Celtic Guardian', who's immune from your mage's gaze, to cut it down to size."

"You underestimate my 'Eye of Illusions'." Pegasus said, "_Dark Magic Attack._"

'Celtic Guardian' was destroy, the black void of an attack hitting him.

Yami's life point drained fast. As did the clock.

**Pegasus: 1200 lp**

**Yugi: 400 lp**

The timer hit zero.

Yami's eyes widened in frustration and realization. "No!"

"I'm afraid our time together is up. It's too bad, I had higher hopes for you." Pegasus's face took up the screen completely. "I have taken a measure of your talents this day, Yugi Muto. And when we next duel we shall play for far higher stakes." He looked at Yami, then and Amiee.

A yellow light appeared from the television, flying upwards, then merging with Yugi's grandpa. That was when the old man's soul lift from his body and was absorbed into the television. "I'll be keeping this as an incentive Yugi-boy. We will see each other again." Then Pegasus's voice faded out, and Grandpa appeared on the screen, a look of distress as he cried out for his grandson.

Yugi's spirit took control, clutching television, recognizing his grandfather's face. "Grandpa!"

The screen faded to static.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpaaa!"


	5. Chapter Three

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: Somewhere there is a disclaimer that talks about the Yu-Gi-Oh! copyrights. It floats throughout the spacetime, but was lost in the rewritten universe that is Bonds Beyond Time. So, instead you just got this little blurb.

Narrator's Note: I am not... happy... about the comments, favs, and follows. I'm completely not ecstatic... ecstatic is... is for stupid text who confuse their binary for human emotions. I'm never happy. Ever. Happy isn't in my programming, I don't do happy. I - aggggh [4filter] [4filter] [4filter]. Maybe I'm a little happy. Just a tiny bit. Just..a...I...I don't...do...happy...ever...GAH. ./.

* * *

"Grandpa!"

Everyone else instantly held their looks of surprise, now not from the crazy words that Pegasus had said about magic, but at the fact that Yugi was acting crazy. Even Amy was shocked, when time had continued outside the Shadow Realm, Amiee had switch back instantly, so smoothly that Amy had no idea that the other had even taken over during the duel. Even Amy felt like there had been some sort of time skip, something she had wildly missed.

"Grandpa!"

It took a moment for the awkward adjustment to kick in, but when it did she was ready - the only one in the room who seemed to have any control of themselves. Yugi was still shaking the television and yelling uncontrollably. The others were still confused by the sight.

"Grandpaaaa!"

Amy quickly got up and sat next to Yugi, twisting his upper body slightly to face her. "Yugi stop!" She put a hand on each side of his face, and looked into his eyes. They were mad with worry and disbelief. "Listen to me, shaking the T.V. won't help anything. He's not there anymore."

"I have to get him back!"

"You will, but not that way!"

Yugi let go of the television, and Amy let go of him. He turned back to the electronic device, but didn't look at it. He stared at the floor instead.

Behind them, the others had finally come to grips, looking over at where Grandpa Muto was laying, hollow and lifeless. Joey was the first of the three to react. "Gramps!" he reached over and turned the old man's body around so he was facing the ceiling.

"Oh no!" Téa responded, getting on her hands and knees, facing his body.

Joey put his head down on Solomon Muto's chest, "I hear a heartbeat, but he's completely unresponsive! He's breathing but he's not moving...it's like his body's an empty shell!"

Now cue Tristan. "What happened to him?!"

And thus all the gang was on the same page again.

"Guys," Amy turned, "shut up for a second! Gwads!" she scowled. "You're not helping. Tristan call 119. Tell them we need an ambulance. Joey, you go get Yugi's mom. Tell her something's happen to Grandpa."

"Right. Come on." The two left for the other room.

Téa responded as the others left. Her voice cracked with distress. "What's wrong with him?"

"..." Amy took a deep breath. Yugi was going to hear her answer, he needed something to mull over the shock. "His body's is pretty much in a coma."

"What? How?! He was fine a few minutes ago!"

Amy got up slowly. "Téa, I need you to listen to me carefully, and believe what I say. Grandpa's heart is still functioning, his brain is still functioning, what's missing is his soul."

She also got up. "His soul?"

"A soul is considered by some to be the very immaterial essence of life. The sense of 'I' that controls who you are. Without it, people are empty functionless vessels."

"But how could he lose his soul?"

She hesitated. "...It was stolen." Amy paused, then added, "But anything stolen can be retrieved." She glanced back at Yugi, still sitting there. Amy got very close to Téa, close enough to whisper, "Two more things. Do not tell Mrs. Muto about the soul thing. That's for the group only. Second, stay here with Yugi. You're not so dumb that I should have to spell out why."

Téa, being the perfect freaking friend she is, didn't even for a second take that last portion as an insult. Amy knew that she would have questions later, but was to concerned about her friend to ask them right now. Amy left the room silently after that. She could hear Téa behind her comforting Yugi. The female made her way outside the room and closed the door, waiting for the boys to come back. She ran her hand through the back of her hair and slumped down to the ground.

This was more distressing then she had first thought it would be. Amy couldn't help but wonder how Yugi was doing, despite leaving only moments ago. She felt like she was doing this all wrong. A nagging thought said she should be in there, saying comforting words to Yugi herself, trying to tell him everything would be all right. But would that be considered a spoiler? She didn't want to break the space-time continuum or anything. Aside from that, Amy quickly reasoned three other things. Firstly, she knew Téa was better at this then she was, because Amy knew everything. Secondly, that she was a better choice anyways, Téa was the closest thing to a childhood friend that Yugi had. She would be much better comfort than a person he practically just met. And third, Amy wasn't here to make friends anyways, she was only here to tag along. It would be counter productive to become attached to anyone.

Still, a part of her, somewhere in the back of her head screamed she was wrong. It made the girl wish so badly that she just had the courage to remove that video tape. She rubbed her neck, a stinging sensation occurring a few places on it, and assumed the pain must have been from the guilt coming around.

Tristan came back first, he hurried to Amy saying, "They're on their way." Amy shot up quick, scrambling off of the floor. Then with a nod, she invited him to stand with her while they waited for Joey, in an informal manner of course. "You should probably wait to go in."

"What, you're nuts if you think I'm staying out here. Yugi needs us right now!" he protested, putting his hand on the doorknob.

"Will you quit it. It's not like I left him alone in there you stupid dirk! Téa's with him, chill the frick out!" she growled back.

"You're not going to keep me away from my friend -" Tristan started, only to be interrupted by a distressed cry coming their way. Yugi's mother ran past the two of them, opening the door and rushing into the room. Amy reached over and closed the door behind her.

She looked up at Tristan, the height difference between them being largely significant. Joey soon followed Yugi's mom. Tristan looked at him. "The ambulance should be here any minute now."

Joey nodded, "How's Yug doing? Is Gramps okay?"

"No." Amy muttered, rubbing her neck again.

"Then why aren't we in there?!"

"Because," she said, "Téa will be out in a second."

Sure enough, a heavyhearted Téa opened the door and looked at the group. "Is it here yet?! What's taking it so long?!"

Rather then answer her question, Amy choose to ignore it all together. "Téa, Joey and I are going to head up to the hospital on foot. You two stay here. Give me a ring when the ambulance gets here."

The taller female closed the door, angry now. "What?! You can't seriously be thinking of leaving him!"

"Oh for gwads sake! What were you all cut from the same tree?! We're just getting a head start, four guests wont fit in an ambulance. Or in any car!"

Joey refused as well, declaring that he wouldn't leave his pal at a time like this. Then, to Amy's surprise, Tristan agreed with her. He looked at Joey. "She right man, you guys go, we'll catch up." While she had no idea what caused his change of heart, she was grateful.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

It was dark out as the two of them walked to the hospital in Domino City. There was no doubt in her mind that was where Solomon would be taken too. It was going to be a long night for Yugi, and the lot of them should be there for at least a little bit. The two walked in silence for a few minutes, the streets being surprisingly quiet. It was so quiet that Amy had time to think. She had time to think about a lot of things. About Joey's sister, about having to go to a hospital, about the fact that she didn't know where to go from here, she hadn't seen this part. The next thing that she had seen was Yugi, frustratedly trying to figure out how this all happened while standing on the school roof tomorrow. But tomorrow was so far away.

"Soooo," Joey had his hands his pockets as he walked, "you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Oh," she mumbled back, "how do you figure that?"

He just kind of glanced at her from the side. "Why else would you have me come along with you. You hate me!"

Amy looked up for a minute, then nodded her head slowly, seemingly agreeing with what he was saying. "Yeah... yeah I pretty much do. Look who's an observant little blond monkey."

Responding to that, Joey made his classic, 4Kids, Brooklyn Rage noise. You know, the one where Wayne Grayson makes an angry "Nyeh" noise, with all of the sounds in the word kind of mushed together. Something that was parodied nicely in the abridged to a full fledged "Nyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeh".

Because that's how the Non-Stop Nyeh Cat rolls. "Watch it, shrimp."

"You watch it, you dumb dueling dog!" Then, surprisingly, Amy sighed, turning around and walking backwards so she was facing the blond secondary canon protagonist. "Alright, you were right. There was a couple of things I wanted to mention."

"Well shoot then."

"So, I hear you've been training for the tournament for the last month. The one that ended earlier tonight. I saw the poster up in Kame Game Shop."

"Awhe yea`! And if I had more time, I woulda` won it too!" he held he hand up too his chest confidently.

Amy rolled her eyes again. The blond was just oozing with overconfidence, another thing she was particularly disdainful about. "Psht, I could have dueled circles around you."

"Oh yeah?" he started, "I've never even seen you duel. I bet you're embarrassed because of how bad of a duelist you are, that's why you never duel."

She waved him off, "If it makes you feel any better, think whatever you like. I'm not completely against the thought of being bad. I'm not a terrible duelist, but I'm not a great one too. Anyone one of use could have lost to Pegasus like that."

This made Joey stop walking. Amy also stopped, waiting for him to say something. She had successfully transitioned into her next subject without having to start it out awkwardly. "Yugi lost?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but yeah. Yugi lost. He dueled Pegasus through the tape... it's hard to explain. What happened to Yugi's grandpa is... Pegasus took his soul as his prize for winning."

Joey shook his head, "That sounds absolutely nuts. Gramps doesn't have a soul?"

"That about covers it."

Joey looked down at his hand. "Are you sure?"

This struck a chord on Amy's patience. It shouldn't because what she was saying didn't sound realistic at all. It would be normal for anyone to question her – and he could be doing so much worse than question her. He could be accusing her of making fun of the situation. Still, Amy knew she was 100% right, so even the slightest questionable response got on her nerves. "Yes, of course I'm sure! You think I would be spitting this crap out on the way to the hospital if I wasn't?!" she leaned forward to look at him as she spoke. Standing side by side and being much shorter made it difficult to make eye contact.

"I checked his heartbeat. His breathing. They were both there, only it was like he was empty...he really lost his soul..." Joey was opening his hand up a closing it as he spoke, as if he was thinking about how he turned Grandpa's limp lifeless body over.

"For gwads sake, yes! He did!"

Then, Joey's hand clenched to a fist, and he brought it parallel to his shoulders. "That lousy snake! We'll get him back for what he did to our buddy!"

It seemed that he had finally accepted the reality she was handing him. Amy turned forward again and started to walk. She didn't wait for Joey, knowing that when he's done having his moment, he would catch up. Amy knew that spitting out all this nonsense sounded crazy, but someone was going to have to explain to everyone the situation. Now that the whole thing was in motion, she had no choice but to open the (again metaphorical) box of dominoes and set them up.

Joey hurried to catch up, and soon they walking at the same pace again. And oh boy, it looked like he was ready to continue the conversation! Yay! I just love awkward conversation!

….Yes, shut up, I am being sarcastic.

"So what happens now? How do we help Yug out?"

Amy snorted at his question. "Why are you asking me? Who said I had all the answers? I don't know what's going to happen." That was a lie. "I don't know what to do!" That was another lie. "I'm not a soothsayer, I can't seen the freaking future." That was only half a lie, she only _saw_ the future once, she technically couldn't _see_ it at random or anytime she wished.

After her rant, Amy resorted to another sigh. "But..."

"But?"

"All I can think of is the video tape. All this trouble came because of a tape. To be safe, if you or any of the others get any video tapes in the next few days, you shouldn't watch them unless everyone is together."

Amy saw, from the corner of her eye, Amiee's spirit form begin to hover around her, coming out from her usual safe zone inside their minds. She looked Amy questionably, unsure of her companion's motives, but didn't say anything. Amiee had a bad habit of not saying what was on her mind. They would have to have a talk later.

"You think he'll be coming after us next?"

_'No. Of freaking course not.' _Amy thought bitterly, but decided it was better not to say that. As I said, Amiee had a bad habit of thinking too much about what she said, so she never said what she wanted to. On the other hand, Amy had a bad habit of not thinking before speaking. It was an issue she was trying to learn to control. So, in response to his question Amy simply shrugged.

"And actually," Amy began to blush. "I had favor to ask you." She was always embarrassed when asking favors. Hated favors. They were just trouble waiting to happen.

Joey could only blink to response, "What?! Me? You want a favor from me?"

She blushed even harder. "Look, it's not that big of a deal! I just..." she looked away, "I need you to cover for me. At the hospital. I'm trying to keep on the down low, so I wondering, should the need arise... if we asked out names and crap, can you tell them I'm your sister?"

"You want me to do what?! What about your school ID?"

"I'm not asking you if you have a real sister for me to pretend to be, just make something up! Gwads! Like I said, I'm trying to keep a low profile, I figure an alias wouldn't hurt any!" she sneered. The two were walking by a business now. It was still open, so it's lights were brightly illuminating the road.

"You don't look anything like me!"

Amy rolled her eyes and forced herself to keep from retaliating. It would only go on forever if they kept this up. Once again, she started ahead him, turning around to walk backwards so they were looking at each other. A breeze blew past them, blowing Amy's hair out from around her neck. Meanwhile she was pointing her hand at her face. Specifically, pointing to her eyebrows, "Look. My natural color is dirty blond." Next, she pointed to her eyes; "And brown eyes. On top of that my blood type is B."

"What?!" Joey shouted, jumping back, "You freak! What are you a clone of me?!"

She appeared to be cross now, standing still. "Not on your life! You aren't the only dirty blond in the world ya' know! It's a happy flippin coincidence, that's all! Look..."

Amy took out a hairpiece out of the pocket of her uniform. It was was a clip with a bow and a long blond strand attached too it. From the other pocket she took out glasses. They had dark blue, round frames. Amy clipped her hair up quickly, leaving small strands of brown hanging loose of the side of her face, and slipped the glasses on. Lastly, she untied her side braid. "I look totally younger, and like weebo."

Joey got closer and leaned down to inspect the quick makeover, "I dunno, you still look like the same shrimp to me..."

Now that he was closer, and with the light of the store window, Joey spotted the markings around Amy's neck. Ten small, light bruises. Joey raised an eyebrow. "Hm? What did you do to your neck?"

Her face distorted with disgust, assuming he was trying to avoid the question. "What? Nothing!

Joey shrugged and pulled back, "Whatever you say." With that, he continued walking. She blinked, unable to comprehend how he rude she thought his response was. Meanwhile, her phone went off. She pulled out her flip phone and opened, a text from Téa popping up.

"Well it's about time they got there." Amy muttered. She closed her phone and went to put it back in her pocket. That was when she caught her reflection in the window of the store. The temptation was too great, so Amy moved her head slightly to the left to check Joey's claim.

_'What the heck?' _There were really bruises there, small, light bruises.

Amy looked up to say something, and realized Joey was far ahead of her.

"Hey! Wait up!" she yelled, starting to run after him, "You can't leave without your little sister!"

.~~~~~~~~~~.

A half hour later, Amy was standing outside the hospital. Naturally, Grandpa had been emitted. Her and Joey had gotten there after the ambulance. Tristan and Téa were already in the waiting room with Yugi. All three of them were silent. By the look on Tea's face, Amy could guess that she thinking about the whole soul thing. Tristan had his own thought, which Amy couldn't even begin to guess what they were. Yugi himself seemed to have his head back on straight, he was quiet, but twiddling his thumbs together, which, at least he was doing _something_.

They didn't know what they were waiting for. For the doctors to not call Grandpa dead? For them to come out an tell everyone they have never seen anything quite like this, or the muddle up closest possible medical call they could make? No one knew for sure, but they waited none the less.

When the desk secretary came over to ask who they were here to see, Joey stated that they were family friends of the Mutos. When she turned her attention to Amy, Joey cut in and said they were sibling. This made Amy smile – just a small smile – hardly able to believe that he went through with it, but pleased none the less.

Now that I've finished that mini sum up flashback, I can get back to what I was talking about. After a while of waiting, Amy went to walk around the outside and get some fresh air. At the time, she only intended on going out for a little while, but there was a temptation not to go back inside that she just couldn't refuse.

It was also the perfect time for Amy and Amiee to talk. Even by now, Amy wasn't quite sure how to try to get contact with Amiee on demand. She had tried screaming her name in Amiee's name in her... their... whichever pronoun was correct... head. It didn't always seem to get her attention. Sometimes Amy tapped on the Eye of Anubis in the center of bracelet. Mostly though, Amy had to wait for Amiee to decide on her own accord to come out in her super special spiritual form that only me, you, and Amy could see.

_'Why did you tell Joey about the video tape?'_

_'Well why not?'_

_'He's suppose to watch it on his own.'_

Amy's grunt, sounding exceedingly frustrated. _'I'm sure in some timeline, somewhere, they watch it together as a group and it doesn't destroy the time stream.'_

_'You can't be sure of that...'_

_'Look, I'm here, okay. That changes somethings, but not everything. Like the Doctor says, it's fixed points in time that are vital, anything else is free reign. I know what points matter and what don't. Yugi's going to share his star chip and prize money anyway.'_

_'...Amy... why do you do this? Why do you go out of your way to try to disrupt the timestream?' _

"Well, maybe I want to be there when Joey finds out his sister's almost blind! Maybe I want the others to be there! Maybe I want to get it out of the way so I don't have to put up with his sulking at Duelist Kingdom! Maybe I just need control of one [4filter] little thing!"

Almost immediately, Amy jumped cupped her hands over her mouth. She had been so mad, she said that last part out loud. Very loud. Frantically looking left and right for some other life forms that had ears, she saw none and was in the clear.

_'But it's not just small things, Amy. What about earlier?'_

_'Oh, you mean the darn video tape. If I just hadn't gotten so gun shy, none of this would have happened. I'm so pissed about that.'_

_'Duelist Kingdom needs to happen.'_

_'No it doesn't! None of this does! As long as we kept Yugi on the down low, and kept anyone from taking over the world, everything would have been fine. They would have had normal lives. Ishizue would have found him eventually, and shown them how to return him to rest. Those are the only fixed points, world stays normal, [name censor] goes home.'_

Amiee didn't respond. Amy could feel her emotion – strong, raw disagreement. Yet, she wasn't using her words to express that disagreement. As always.

A voice calling her name pulled Amy out of the conversation and back into the real world. Yugi was slowly maneuvering his way to the spot. Between the distance and the dark, she could barely see his face. What gave his location away was the white shirt beneath his uniform. Eventually, coming into the light, the two sat down together. It was awkward at first.

"You okay?" she asked finally, getting out the question that had bothering her all afternoon.

The short male looked over. "That's actually what wanted to ask you."

This made the short female blink, pausing for a moment, her face questing of what he meant. "I'm fine. I'm not the one all the crap is happening too."

She momentarily decided that saying that probably was a bad idea. But, you know, she could mentally smack herself all she wanted, and it won't change the fact that she said it. However, on the flip side, Yugi let the mistake slide. Instead, he explained himself, "You were pretty upset during the duel with Pegasus.."

"The duel with... wha?"

A worried look crossed Yugi's face, "Don't you remember? You were there with me in the Shadow Realm. I'm not sure why, but you were the only other one who wasn't effected by it. With everything that has happened, I hadn't got the chance to see how you were..."

"Oh, that, right." Amy started. She still had no idea what Yugi was talking, but looking at his face, felt sympathy for his concern. He was really trying to be nice, acting like he cared for her, despite the fact that they had only know each other for such a short amount of time. She didn't have the heart to be honest, it would only worry the male more. Playing along was the only option. "No, I'm good. Everything's a bit hazy actually."

Yugi looked briefly at her neck, which Amy had been holding her hand over. She had been ever so slightly thinking about it's mystery since they started speaking. The bruises could very well have something to do with this conversation. However, somewhere between them, there was an silent similarity – neither one wanted to talk about it. If Yugi had to come see how she was after all this, then whatever happened had to been strange enough to make Amy not want to know what it was. On Yugi's side, he thought it better that she not remember. So there was an unspoken drop of the subject.

The moment got quiet, not tense, or awkward, or relaxed, just quiet. On top that, neither our Oc, nor the cannon main character, made any significant movement. Amy looked at the ground, Yugi looked at the above. After a couple of minutes, Amy brought the conversation back to life, noting that Yugi wasn't leaving, and no one else was coming looking for him.

"Is everyone else still in the building?" she looked up at the sky now, too. Her body leaning back, hands grasping the back of the seat, left leg crossing over her right.

He shook his head to the side in response. "No, visiting hours are over, I told them to go home. You should go home too."

The two got up, Amy muttering "Go home, riiiiiight." sarcastically, low enough so Yugi wouldn't hear. After stretching her arms up in the air, she held her arms behind her head as the walked, in the manner where one intertwines their fingers together and puts both palms on the back of one's head. She sightly arced her back to stretch it, and finally closed her eyes as she walked. Maybe like this she could relax a bit.

"Hey Amy..."

Or maybe not.

"What's up Sport?" Hopefully calling him Sport would throw him off enough so he wouldn't talk.

It didn't work. Yugi only paused for a moment before he continued, "What did Pegasus mean about telling me about what we were wearing and -"

Amy opened one eye, then stretched her right arm out. The two were in arms length of each other. Her finger touched his lips, the surprise of the gesture cutting off his sentence midway. "Sshhh." They both stopped walking. "I think today has been crazy enough. This isn't the time. Tomorrow, I promise."

The female retracted her hand, bringing it back up to her head and again intertwining her fingers. She entered the stretch of road, without turning to Yugi to say goodbye.

_'Amy.' _

_'Yeah?'_

_'Where are we going?'_

_'Home.'_

_'You don't have a home here in Japan. Are we doing the usual thing?'_

_'Yeah.'_

* * *

Narrator's Note: I was going to upload two chapters to say th- ahhhhh ahem - I mean because I felt like it, but this next chapter is kicking my [4filter]. Frig the manga from constantly closing on me. And frig Joey for talking so much.


	6. Chapter Four

**UPDATED NARRATOR's NOTE (JULY 21, 2014): For reason, I have changed the ending of this chapter. Just a few sentences. It doesn't really matter right now, but come next chapter, it'll matter. More or Less.**

[On Track]*[Extra/Non Extra]

Disclaimer: Gasp! Do you know who wrote and illustrated the manga for Yu-Gi-Oh!? Unless someone pulls a random conspiracy theory out of there butts, it's Kazuki Takahashi. And then the anime that this fanfic is based on is done by Nihon Ad System and Gallop, not by Toei Animations. Because, gasp! Toei did an adaptation too! Only that was on Season 0. Nihon Ad System worked off of the Duelist manga. 4Kids licensed the freaking thing in North America and then there was draaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaa. Sing it with me, you know you want to. Draaaaaammmmmaaaaaaaaaaa. Now the North American license is under Konami's 4K Media Inc.. This means if you buy any of the new release box set this shiny golden typeface at the bottom will say "4K Media Inc.". Feel free to gasp at the realization that 4Kids is extinct.

Narrator's Note: I'll admit, I did slack out on the editing this time. I only looked through the chapter four times, so, I missed a loooooooot of mistakes. This was going to be a double upload chapter, but halfway through I wanted to punch Joey in the face... If I, you know, wasn't text and had actual hands. This chapter follows a little bit of the next episode, "Journey to Duelist Kingdom". And it only goes through like the first five minutes or so of the episode and some of the manga. This is only a four thousand word chapter. I think that's the norm. Especially for extra chapters, which is weird, because you think I would have more information coming straight from the multicolored animation.

* * *

The sun was setting on an awkward day of school. The day seemed to drag on forever, it was clear that everyone in the group had things on their minds, as no one really spoke to each other much. Even Amy backed off, understanding how the others must feel. Surprisingly, even Bakura didn't approach her about yesterday's stunt of ditching cleaning duty.

At the end of school, Yugi went out to the roof, starring at the sunset. Yugi grasped on to the fencing protecting the edge of the school. The blond of his hair was illuminated by the deep colored lights being emitted by the sky. It wasn't until the door coming up to the roof clicked did Yugi take his eyes off the sunset.

"Oh, Amy."

When Amy opened the door, she viewed Yugi in front of that sunset. She hadn't expected the scene to look quite like it did, and it was like her heart stopped for just a moment, as if the whole world stopped. The sunset had outline Yugi. The brim of his figure was bright with the bleeding pigments of color from the sun, and slowly that brightness transitioned into his darker normal colors. He looked at her with his wide eyes, sad and distracted within his thoughts. Yugi took one hand off of the fence, so he could turn fully face Amy. She could feel her cheeks involuntarily heating up. There was a strange fluttering feeling inside her that was new.

"I was just about to come find you." he continued.

Flustered, and cursing herself for being so, Amy couldn't find the right way to form a sentence. She could only squeak out a muttered, "Yeah." Then made her way over to the fence and held on to it without saying much more. She stationed herself right next to where Yugi was standing. He turned himself back to the world of Domino, and they starred out together.

Silence loomed between them, floating around with the weight of a feather. Her eyes would occasionally steal glances to the side just as she would calm down, and she would blush again. "So... um... since the Millennium Items..." she started.

Yugi looked over and cut off her sentence, "The what?"

Whatever strange feeling had lingered over the moment was shattered. She snapped her body to the side, letting go of the fence. "Come again?!"

His eyes widened, and he too let go of the fence, only it's in this case it was to hold his palms as a defensive wall. "Millennium Items. Do you mean like my puzzle?"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Tightening her hand into fists, she hopped to the side. As your narrator, I have to suggest you imagine her body as a distorted angry anime chibi. It suits the situation more. Just for this small portion. Yes, I know Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't big on chibis, but use your freaking imagination, human! "That's the basics! What was Pegasus doing whole time, combing his hair? What about Egypt? Did he say anything about Egypt?"

"Um, no." he leaned back a little. "What about Egypt?"

"That lazy good for nothing! Did he tell you ANYTHING?" Amy fumed, flailing her still (should you choose to imagine it) chibi arms around.

"He kind of made it seem like you would explain everything. But he did mention the Shadow Realm."

(If you went ahead and did what I asked, you can stop imaging her as a chibi and go back to normal Yu-Gi-Oh! style. You should go back a few lines and totally reread that portion in with Amy in regular style and see that I was right. I was totally right.)

Amy's face tightened, like she had another fit of rage that she was trying to conceal rather then let out. A "Nnn" sound escaped her mouth, her fists tightening up and arms bending so her fists were next to her face. Then she let it go, relaxing her shoulders and dropping her and arms to hang loosely. This was all tied together with a very large sigh, afterwords saying, "He made it seem like I would explain everything, huh?"

Yugi leaned forward again, silent and waiting. He watch as Amy straightened up and the took hold of his puzzle. "There was once a time in Egypt where powerful figures used dark magic to battle each other, some historians call them Shadow Games. I guess it was around 5,000 years ago or so. They battled with demons, monsters, and magic. Pegasus made the card game, basing it on these ancient battles.

"When the dark magic got out of control, it's said that a great pharaoh sealed it away. The tale has something to do with the creation of seven great Millennium Items. Artifacts of power and magic."

Yugi gasped slightly. "My puzzle?"

"Your puzzle is one of the seven. Pegasus's eye was another. He used its magic to steal your grandfather's soul. All of the items have their own special uses. Even your puzzle." She took one hand off of the puzzle, shifting it so it balanced in the center of that palm. With her now free hand, she grabbed Yugi's wrist and brought it up, lastly placing the puzzle in his hand. "Keep it safe."

Amy stepped back an gave him some space. She was expecting the look of surprise Yugi had plastered on his face. Also expected was the next question.

"How do you know all this?"

Amy put her arm up, knuckles facing Yugi. The end of the girl's uniform fit well enough that the sleeve stayed up when she lifted her arm, but it wasn't so tight that Amy's bracelet bulged out from under it. Since the night she arrived, Amy had been trying to keep her bracelet covered up. The idea was to not encourage questions before the right time.

Now was the right time.

She pulled her sleeve down, and her bracelet simmered with the setting sun.

"You have one, too!" he started, "That's right, I remember seeing it the night you came to my house."

But Amy had to shake her head at that. "It's not part of the same set. My bracelet was cut from a different mold then the others, presumably also at a far later time. It still has some magic to it, but nothing like the seven." She pointed to the Eye of Anubis on her item, tracing her finger around its shape. "The design of the eye is flawed in several places like these break marks at the bottom, aside from that its smaller then the ones on the seven." It was true, the eye was much smaller then the one on the puzzle. He bottom looked like two cleaned breaks about an inch apart from each other. Amy always assumed it was a mistake in the molding.

While she was talking, the female put her arm and sleeve back down. She waited for Yugi's response, something to reassure her he had been able to absorb everything.

She instead received a completely unexpected reaction. She had thought that this would be a repeat of last night when she was explaining things to Joey – being asked to explain or choose what happens next - and Amy was prepared to get frustrated the same way. Instead, Yugi said something completely different. He said, "Thank you, Amy. I'm going to save my grandpa from Pegasus no matter what."

Amy felt herself blush one more time. This time it wasn't from overactive pheromones, but from embarrassment. The kind of embarrassment that even though people were embarrassed, there was a secret feeling of happiness. And Amy smiled slightly. "We should probably go home."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"So you like hamburgers? Really?" Amy made a sour face. "Not even with cheese? Come on Yugi, they have to have cheese. Without it the cheese it's just a burnt piece of meat."

He shrugged in response, "I guess I've always preferred it without."

"Ew. That's super gross. Especially when they're fast food burgers, cheese is the only thing that keeps them from tasting completely nasty." she muttered, sticking out her tough momentarily in disgust.

"Well," Yugi started, "at least fast food burgers are never burnt."

Amy nodded, agreeing with his statement, but ready to simultaneously disagree. "True that. But then again, I'm pretty sure if the patty did burn, the thing would disintegrate on touch. They're so thin. You know we used to have a cartoon back in America where one of the main settings was a fast food restaurant. The burgers always looked so good, animated like they were. It's what started the hold burger spiel when I was a kid. But then I moved to pasta."

"You came from America?"

Frowning at the fact that she had accidentally let that fact slip out, and even more so at the fact that it was all he seemed to take from the story, Amy looked away. "Yeah."

The subject changed quickly as soon as Kame Game was on the horizon. Three bodies were standing by the door, three very familiar bodies. And as soon as Yugi caught sight of them, they caught sight of him.

"Yugi!" Téa called, waving her hand in the air. Neither Joey nor Tristan waved. Joey looked as if he was holding something – a mail package. His videotape.

Yugi stopped for a second. "Guys?" Then tightened his hands, as they were holding onto his bag straps, and ran towards the game shop. Amy ran after him wordlessly, holding up her little indifferent book bag.

Téa handed him an envelope. "This was stuck in your door."

Yugi nodded in gratitude and took it from her, opening the top quickly. He moved his hands to the bottom of the envelope and shimmied the contents upward. "These are Duel Monsters cards!"

"It must be from Pegasus!" Tristan cut in.

Yugi nodded, then looked around the group. "What are you guys doing here?"

Now it was Joey's turn to cue in. "Brace yourself. It's just like Amy said." Joey slipped the tape out from the package, "Look what I just got! A videotape addressed to me! The mailman delivered it today!"

"You got a videotape too?!"

Amy just pointed to Kame. "We should do this inside."

.~~~~~~~~~~.

Yugi had the cards laid out on the floor. Next to each other, they seemed to deliverer a timeline of events.

'Duelist Kingdom'.

'Voyage to the Kingdom'.

'The Honor of the King's Right'.

'Duelist's Glove'.

'The Honor of the King's Left'.

The gang chatted about the clues that the cards held. They examined each card and went over the purpose of the first two, from the boat that boards to the island, to the island itself. While everyone talked, Amy stayed silent and moved the cards around in the correct order. "Each tells you a little about Duelist Kingdom." Tristan stated finally.

Per usual, Amy rolled her eyes, "With a keen eye for detail like that, one truth shall surely prevail."

"You know, being sarcastic all the time makes you really unattractive." said Detective Tristan.

Amy mimicked his tone and wording, "You know telling a person they're unattractive makes you really unattractive."

Yugi went over to the package from yesterday as they bickered, taking the glove out, he turned it around to admire all of the star spots. He then reached over to the star chips and held them in the other hand. Amy picked up the card and read it out loud, "_All Duelists must have at least one Star Chip on their wrist band at all times._ What a bunch of crap."

In response he placed the Star Chips in the glove. "These Star Chips must be proof as your status as a Duelist. And you bet these Star Chips on your duels."

Amy passed the card to Téa, whom looked at it front and back. Two more cards lay untouched, the blank white one and the card with the image of treasure. The short female picked them up, handing the blank one to Yugi. "These are the last two." She gave the other one to Tristan. "'The Honor of the King's Right', it's a three million dollar reward to the winner of the tournament."

"Three million? That's a lot of money." Tristan responded in awe, passing the card along.

"But there's nothing written on the other card, 'The Honor of the King's Left'! There's some honor that only the one who becomes the king can get!"

"Those are the last of the cards." Amy shook her head, putting the five in a pile. "Now you know what Pegasus is expecting you to do."

Yugi looked at the Duel Glove, then slipped it on for the first time. "Yeah. In a few days the ship will set off."

"Lets watch Joey's video next." Téa said reluctantly.

The room got heavy. Joey nodded, maneuvering himself in front of the television, he turned the television on and inserted the tape. The VCR flickered, and then the face appeared on screen. But it wasn't the face everyone in the room expected. There was no silver haired man on the screen, but a sweet faced girl instead.

"Hey there big brother! How have you been? I really miss you!"

Everyone else but Amy gasped. "Joey did she say big brother?!" Yugi blurted.

Serenity's soft face appeared on the screen as she waved her hand in greeting. Joey muttered her name under his breath. Even he wasn't expecting this, and in front of his friends no less. Now he would have to explain despite the fact that his sister was such a personal matter. But before that, he would have to finish the tape.

Tristan showed the most surprise out of all of them. "How could Joey have a sister this cute?!"

The tape continued as the others shouted. Joey didn't even hear his friends in the background. His entire world was centered around the television at that moment. "I can't believe it's been six years since we've seen each other. I'll never forget the day Mom took me to live with her. I'm sending you just so you don't forget your little sister's face."

The more the others listen, the more confused they appeared. And worried.

"It seems like I'm running out of time... I was hoping to see you once more... before... well, uh, you understand."

Amy crossed her arms and watched the tape. Her face was solid and unphased, as if she was patiently waiting for the video to finish.

"Bye bye, brother." In the video, Serenity paused for a moment, and looked down. Her face melted over with sadness. But in the end, Serenity tried to smile. "So long... take care Joey."

The tape ended, making the VCR flicker again. No one could speak, they could only wait for Joey to explain, unsure of what to think, and not wanting their imaginations to take the best of them.

Today on "Yu-Gi-Oh Out of Context" we watch Serenity's video mail and use our imaginations to determine what kind of terminal illness she has. Whaaaaaaaat? What do you mean her going blind wasn't your first guess?

…...What? Why are you looking at me like that. Yeah, I'm being jerk, so what. We all know she'll get her vision back! Gwads! Look, I haven't interrupted the story really since that Chapter Two. Even though I'm the narrator and can do whatever I want, I've been really good! I deserve some screen time here.

Joey finished his explanation, which you didn't get to read through because I overwrote it with my previous sarcasm. Blahblahblah. Bad eyes. Blahblahblah. Divorce. Whhhhat do you want from me, to actually play the scene? Fine! You all are so boring. Let me rewind and starts from where I left off.

Joey's eyes drifted down, recalling memories from his past. "My parents...split up around six years ago. My sister went with my mom. They live pretty far away," he took a breath, "my sister has had eye problems since she was born..." The blond trailed off. "The doctors said that she would go blind eventually..."

Téa gasped. The boys stayed silent, while Amy let her eyes drift away. She let herself examine the wall. Even though Amy knew the story, having it presented straight to her face made her uneasy. She didn't know what an appropriate reaction would be.

"When she said one last time... that means..." the static of the television muffled out some of Joey's words.

Amy shook her head, looking back at the situation. It was just so sad... so pitiful. So antsy. Too antsy. And you wonder why I skipped this scene. So, Amy got up, and turned the T.V. off, ejecting the tape. She reached for the packaging, and slipped it back in. "It means she'll be going blind soon." Amy put the package down in front of him.

Joey didn't say anything, even when he picked up the tape. The only thing the blond did to respond is nod.

"I'm sorry man," she shook her head, "this is all because I thought Pegasus would send another stupid tape. Now we all know a huge personal secret."

An unreadable look came from the back. It was Tristan. As Amy spoke, Tristan seemed to listen keenly, and whatever he was thinking about didn't look pleasant. Not being able to quite tell the emotion, Amy dropped the thought, very sure that it must have something to do with his future ship Serenity. Since I'm the text and the narrator, I can tell you what he emotion he had. Suspicion. I'll tell you a secret – since the day before, when Amy told him not to go into the room, Tristan had been set on alert about her intentions in regards to his friends. And when Joey relayed the information Amy told him to Tristan, his pondering was mentally justified. There was something off about her. Since then, Tristan had been mentally going over her actions, and realized something the others failed to.

She knew way more then she was letting on.

Right now, the others took her words in with the most innocent of ideals. Even Joey, the way Joey had his head down, the hair draped over his eyes. He was letting his guard way down, because he was sure that there was only friends here. "No, it's alright. You guys would have found eventually. No matter how hard I would have tried to raise money, I never would have been able to raise enough money."

"Money?" Yugi asked. His thoughts instantly turned to the stack of cards sent by Pegasus.

"They say with the most advanced treatments out there, she has about a 50% chance of a successful operation to cure her. But where would I get that kind of money? I'm her big brother.." Now, Joey raised his fist in frustration and slammed it on the floor. "But I can't do anything to help her! Not one thing! I'm useless!"

"Joey, wait!" Yugi shouted.

He looked up at his short friend. "Yug?"

Yugi had taken the small pile of cards and star chips, sorting through them. "There is a way! Remember this?" He slipped 'The Honor of the King's Right' out of the pile. "With this you can earn the money that you need."

"B-but I don't have any Star Chips!" he responded.

Yugi smiled. "Of course you do Joey. Take one of mine."

"But you need those to get save your grandpa."

"I still have one. Take it Joey, proof that you're a duelist." Yugi held one in his palm for Joey to take. Joey repeated the last phrase as he picked up the Star Chip. Téa and Tristan responded at this point, gathering around for the purpose of encouraging their friends. And the little group smiled together and Amy could see, for the first time, why they will get as far as they will. If it was for a friend, there was no distance these four individuals wouldn't go. So Amy looked down at her bracelet, for the first time really longing to be a part of that equation.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

She yawned, a big, dinosaur call type yawn. Having her arms crossed on the desk before her, Amy put her head down on the space in between. One of the nearby students simply looked her way and starred. In response, she looked his way and glared. Right after she rubbed her eyes because they were tiered from glaring.

_'You've got to find some better way to spend the nights you don't stay at Yugi's house.'_ Amiee's spirit appeared next to Amy. She was crossing her arms behind her back and looking down with those wide sweet eyes._ 'You haven't slept in two days.'_

_'Oh posh you nag. You sound like my mom.' _she pouted._ 'It only a once and a while thing so it doesn't really matter.'_

_'You could find another way...'_

_'Mm...It's fine Amiee, it's one of those things you gotta do things.'_

Amy reached into her bag and fumbled around a bit. It took a minute, but she pulled out her wallet. She turned it upside down grudgingly. A couple of 100 yen coins tumbled out, rolling around on her desk. She picked one up and examined it. "Food money budget is low." she muttered. _'See, that's what I've got to do.'_

Amiee could only worriedly shrug. _'I guess if you say so.'_

The next thing that happened was Yugi entered the classroom, immediately walking over to Amy's desk. "Did you get home okay?"

Amy was too tiered to add a sarcastic tone to her words, but she meant them sarcastically for what it's worth. "I'm here, aren't I?" She started to put the coins back in her wallet while talking.

"You look tired."

She waved her finger around to make a small sarcastic circle. It was one way to express the emotion without toning it. "I could start the couldn't sleep speech, but that would be too much effort. I hate effort. Effort takes so much time and energy and would be exhausting."

Another anime sweat drop appeared on Yugi's head. "You sure are putting a lot of effort into describing effort."

She turned her head around and muttered. "That's my jam." Téa walked into the classroom, and Amy pointed a finger at the door, her hand in gun form. She lifted it up to represent it firing, hoping it would direct Yugi's attention to the door. It worked, and Yugi spotted Téa, going over to talk to her.

Closing the bag, Amy stuffed her wallet back in as the homeroom teacher entered the room. Everyone sat down in there seats while something incoherent to Amy was being said from the podium, and grey dots began to dance in front of her eyes. The female, while still laying her head down on the table, turned her head to where Yugi was sitting, watching him look attentively at the homeroom teacher. Those grey dots grew, and merged together, and the voice of the room distanced itself, becoming farther away with each word. Amy watched Yugi until take grey mass covered her vision completely and turned black.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

Our main original character slept through about a half of the school day. For the most part she was only dozing off on the school desk, awake then asleep then awake again, catching a few points of the lessons in between. Then at on point, the teacher sarcastically asked her if she would like wake up and join the rest of us or to go to the nurses office to take her beauty sleep. Rather then be embarrassed like most students would, she answered with "Oh, hell yes." only catching about half of what was said, and walked out of the room before she could be told to sit down.

When she got back to the real world, lunch had started. She sat down with the others as they ate around he desks. And by sat, I mean plopped herself down without ask, saying groggily, "That dem good nap." Amy used the word "dem" here replaces [4filter], as to not be held down by the man – or in this case, the word censor. Same way she does with "flippin", "freaking", "dirk", and the rest of her colorfully censored vocabulary.

The group was chatting about something when she interrupted. Presumably, they were going over how Téa, Tristan, and Amy would have to stay behind while the other two went to Duelist Kingdom. No Star Chips meant no entry.

"This is bad..." Téa said, after Amy made her grand entrance and the group got back on topic. "I can't there's nothing we can do to help..."

"I can't believe we're stuck here while you two are going through the most important tournament of your lives." Tristan said frustrated, leaning back on his chair.

"I can't believe..." Amy started, rubbing her eyes. Everyone looked her way, "That you two are giving up. I'm going to Duelist Kingdom."

The others looked surprised (Do you notice how often they end up looking surprised? They'd better stop, because if I have to say "surprised" or "shocked" one more time, I'm going to flip my crap.) Accept Tristan, his eyes showed him going on alert. Suspicion oozed from him again, like it had the day before. Only this time, Amy was just sleepy enough to notice it. And she panicked a bit inside, realizing her last sentence might have been a slip up. She chose her next words as carefully as possible. "I...I'm going with you guys no matter what it takes. Tristan's right, this is too important to stay behind."

"But how?" Yugi asked.

She looked over at Tristan, who was watching her like a hawk. "I'll find a way." she muttered. '_I have my ways.'_

The rest of the day, Amy was attentive enough. She took a few notes, day dreamed a little, but didn't go back to sleep. The day went back to being normal, for a while anyways. The teacher wrapped up the final class, and Amy was organizing her notes. Her peripheral vision caught a boys uniform standing over the side of her desk. Her eyes meet up with the distracted and unhappy looking mass of a person waiting for her attention. Tristan. And the look of his face just screamed to Amy that this day wasn't done being a pain in the [4filter].


	7. Chapter Five

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: While everything here is still originated from Kazuki Takahashi, and the story still follows the Nihon Ad System and Gallop anime adaptation of Duelist, I admit that used some references from the original manga, and from Toei Animation's adaptation. So, copyright credits all around. Cheers.

Narrator's Note: Lots of notes here, and I'm in too much of a rush to be sarcastic with you today. Lucky you.

I did alter the end of the last chapter to make it more IC. Leaving a note just wasn't Tristan's style. If you were around for the original upload of that chapter, you could go back and reread it, it's only an altercation to the last paragraph. Or you choose not too go back. I don't care.

I used Episode 25 of the Toei Animation adaptation as a resource for Bakura's apartment. There are a few shots of a few of the areas of his apartment, obliviously the Monster World Room, and the Room with the line of figurines and desk. There's also a small glimpse of the hallway in one scene. I had to guess the rest of his apartment using my vague sense of logic. he had to have a Kitchen somewhere, right? I couldn't find anything on his mother, but there is a page in the manga, before the Monster World battle, where Bakura is writing a letter to someone, presumably his dead sister. And we know that his father's occupation, as he made reference to that in the Nihon Anime (Episode 13) On that same note, there is a reference to Tea's house and room in Episode 52 "The Pharaoh's Lost Memories" ("The Past is Present") (Again, Nihon Adaptation). Per usual, I went through and edited a couple of times, but still must have missed so much.

For those of you coming across this story as its uploaded, I plan on doing a massive edit update sometime in September of 2014 where I go through all the chapters, find typos, fix them, and miss even more typos. Maybe do some grammatical restructuring. Who knows.

The next chapter will finish the third episode. It won't be another extra. Cross my heart and hope to crash. (see what I did there? Text doesn't die, it crashes! Ha! I'm funny

... It's funny. Laugh human.

And of course, I have to smack that stupid rate and review blurb on here. But if you don't feel like it, don't do it. On the same note, I refuse I comment on how happ- I mean, um, generally interested your feedback has made me. I don't thank people ever. But if I did, I might... Maybe... Oh never mind! Let just get to the chapter!

* * *

Tristan opened the door to the roof, and Amy followed him with a grumble. She closed the door as stopped in the middle of area. They were silent until Amy put her hands in her pockets. "What could _you _possibly want from me?"

"I've got some questions." he answered simply, turning around, a hard look in his eyes.

Amy's muscles tightened. "What is this, some kind of interrogation Detective Tristan."

He closed the gap between them, clearly not amused. "You've got to be straight with me. How did you know that Joey was going to get a tape too?"

Agitation showed in Amy face, tightening her jaw. "Lucky hunch."

"I said you've got to be straight with me. How did you know?"

Her body was fully stiff and on alert now, "I told you, lucky hunch. Are you going anywhere with this?"

"I'm just saying it's pretty odd that you knew Grandpa's soul had been taken when the rest of us were completely in the dark."

She stayed silent.

"And that while we were at the hospital you used Joey as a cover, then disappeared nearly right after."

Amy was left with the pointless clarification question. While it was redundant, at least she could be sure with what he was saying. "You accusing me of something." It turned out to be more of a statement then a question.

He closed the gap between them completely. "Maybe I am. Maybe it seems like you're in line with Pegasus, and about to go on a trip with my buddies and I don't like it." By leaning down, he made himself a similar height to Amy, and grabbed onto her uniform collar, which she had loosened earlier in the day to make sleeping more comfortable. His fingers only wrapped around it loosely.

I should note here, that the way he was grabbing made it clear that he was only trying to intimidate her. You know how you can tell when someone is actually trying to hurt you, verses the way the grab you to intimate you or catch you attention? How there always feels like there's going to be another spring in their wrist if the person actually intends on following up with the threat, but otherwise they stiffen. Tristan had stiffened. He was trying to intimidate the truth out of her.

Where Tristan had expected her to pull away and start explaining the situation to him, something very different happened. Amy looked at his face, so close her hers, and for just a second, Bakura's face flashed in her mind. The memory of that rainy night flashed back to her, clear as day. The feeling from that night flashed back as well – the aggravation of realizing the best choice was to not fight with Bakura, the anger of seeing his cocky face and forcing herself to be helpless, the idea that she had to be fair, because the body itself belonged to an innocent boy who had nothing to do with this.

But this time, there was no innocent boy on the other side of her emotions. There was just Tristan.

Something inside Amy snapped.

When her arm jerked upward, it seemed like it had done it all on it's own, without any consent from Amy. Her body felt like it was controlling itself, not listening to the logic in her brain. Her fist collided with Tristan's jaw, and he staggered backwards. But unfortunately for Amy, this was the type of situation that Tristan was used to. He recovered almost immediately, sending a retaliation back her way. She crossed her arms in from of her body.

While her arms protected her from the punch, the force threw her back to the roof. She hit hard, and it took her longer to recover then it had Tristan.

Two objects tumbled from Amy's pockets when she made impact with roof. They were small stars, rolling as the momentum carried them from one point to the next until they circled and fell down. Star Chips. The big entrance fee into Duelist Kingdom.

Without noticing the Star Chips, she got up and huffed. The fight was taking all of her attention. Amy attempted to strike him again, the image of the Spirit of the Ring enraging her mind. Behind them, the sound of the door opening lifted through the tension. Nether herd it. Tristan stepped to the left, making Amy's wild attack leave her open, and he sent a right hook into her gut.

An alien noise escaped her, thrown back to the surface of the roof. This time, Amy didn't get up on her feet, instead, she rolled over, clutching her gut, coughing – loosing her breath and trying to catch it all in the same instance.

The sounds of the rest of the world disappeared, the visuals of the rest of the world disappeared. Her senses were blocked by a momentary rush of adrenaline. Slowly, it began fade, the tension faded away, and Amy began to recognize her surroundings in the real world. There was an arm wrapped around her back and shoulder. A familiar yell that said her name, asking if she was alright, like it had so many times before. The purple of the boys uniform in her vision.

Yugi Muto.

Joey was in a conflict with Tristan. The blond was holding his friend back as they yelled at each other. Yugi said something else, this time to Tristan. The two of them must have seen Tristan and Amy exit and followed them. The female still breathed in and out, now taking deep breaths, her body still trying to get back the breath she had lost. Now if only her ego could get back what it lost after that humiliating blow, Amy would be all good.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~.

The pebble tumbled onto the road. She located another one to kick soon after. The girl was strolling through now with a hunch in her step, exhausted from this afternoon's ventures. _'I'm so sick of this.' _Amy sighed mentally. _'The good news is Duelist Kingdom is next.'_

Amiee appeared next to her, per usual. _'Are you alright?' _

The other gave a sour face, wincing as she put her hand back to her stomach. _' Obliviously. He didn't hit me as hard as he could of, must have been holding back for some unholy reason. I'm just glad I didn't throw up. It would have been all over Yugi. There will just be bruising. I certainly can't go to Yugi's after that scene.'_

Amiee's expression turned to confusion. _'You can't? Why not?'_

Amy stopped, and turned to Amiee, which was awkward to watch considering she was looking at the wall now. She pointed to herself and with sluggish confidence, turning her hand to the side so her thumb was doing the pointing. _'Pride!'_

Amiee face remained the same. _'Pride?'_

_'Right. You see Amiee, society is built on the action and reaction of individuals. Whatever I do now will represent my response to Tristan's earlier actions.' _

_'But...'_ the other started, _'going to Yugi's would have nothing to with to do with Tristan.'_

Amy slowly waved her finger in the spirit's face. _'That's true, however, because I have yet to have a reaction to the earlier event, society will assume whatever I do next is the reaction, despite the fact that there relation would be none existent. _

_'It's like the physics of the planet itself, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Because that rule is a part of the world we live on, it becomes a part of us. Those actions and reaction we choose to take will be judged by society. So, we as individuals have pride, which acts as a defensive wall to those judgments. Pride can protect us from those responses. Those responses are like allies and enemies, they can build up our pride or chip away at it, and in times of hardship, all we can see is that wall blocking our view of the world beyond it, and we can only act and react to what we can see.'_

Amiee started twisting her hair around her finger nervously. _'That's... really confusing.'_

The girl frowned. _'Would have preferred poetic or philosophical, but whatever.'_

_'I still don't see what that has to do with Yugi.' _

_'That's simple. Yugi was the one who broke our argument up.'_

_'So...?' _

_'So, I can't go to him afterward. It would look like I was admitting that he saved me or going to him like my hero or something.'_

_'But you're not doing anything like that. You would just be getting a place to sleep.'_

_'I wish it were that simple.'_

_'That sounds...' _Amiee hesitated, again stopping herself from releasing her own opinion.

So Amy filled the blank in for her. _'Stupid.' _Then she shrugged. _'Yeah, but my pride's the only thing I got going for me right now. This is one of those times I've got to follow the rules of the road when I'm driving.' _

There was edge in her mental tone.

The two passed by a convenience store, glancing into the window. Amy's stomach growled, and the two looked at each other. She flushed._'There's no way that came from me.'_

Amiee blinked and shrugged. _'Maybe the reason you didn't throw up was because you haven't eaten anything.'_

After fumbling a bit, she found her wallet. It took a few moments to total the amount of Yen, but it added up to enough to make Amy shrug. _'I guess something for later could hurt all that much.'_

Amy entered the store and eyed the products._'Maybe something instant. That's affordable.'_

_'What about noodles? You'll get more if you cut them into smaller cubes.' _Amiee smiled brightly, making one of her rare jokes.

_'Oh, sure,'_ Amy preformed one of her classic, not rare, eye rolls, _'use the old food budget cliché. Funny stuff.'_ She looked at the body products as she pasted them, spitting her attention between the two. Because of this, too late she spotted a familiar figure at the check out. A familiar, innocent looking, white haired figure, who turned around too fast for Amy to duck out.

_'[4fiiiiiiiiiiiiilter].'_

Bakura picked his bags up from the counter. "Good evening, Amy." He didn't miss a chance to be polite. He smiled.

Amy frowned. She was too tired for this right now. "Good, great, yeah."

"What are you doing here so late?" The two veered off by the body products to talk. Amy looked outside at the darkness falling over Domino.

Amy put her hand on her hip. For the umpteenth time all she could do was look at his face, and it looked genuine. But that previous release of anger had left her without her usual fire. At least, for the moment, she would be calm enough to have a regular conversation with the Thief King/Innocent Bystander Hybrid. In her venture to conceal her weakened state, which Amy considered both her hunger and exhaustion to be, she had naturally answered with a lie. "Batteries." she blurted slowly, choosing a random fib. "I needed to get batteries. For my camera."

She mentally smacked herself, again, and Bakura just starred at her. "I didn't know you had a camera." Following up on her lie, she went over to the battery section. He followed her over and stood by as she scanned through the batteries.

"Yeah. It's nothing fancy or anything." she muttered, gabbing a pack of batteries. "But I have gotten a few good shots from it." And she headed over to the cashier, again, Bakura following her still making polite conversation. One part of her wanted to groan, knowing how much this rouse was going to cost and what it meant for her budget.

"What kind of things do you take pictures of?" he asked.

Amy examined the money she pulled out of her wallet and silently wished it well for the rest of it's journey through the economy. "Um, food mostly." The other part of her was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, as she realized that truths were starting to slip into the lie. "I like to photograph the things I cook."

"Would you like a bag?" the young cashier asked shyly.

Picking up the batteries from the counter, she shook her head. Bakura waited for her to finish before they left the store together. As they walked, they made small talk. Amy waited for a good time to ditch. It's notable to point out here that Amiee had gone silent, hidden away. She always did this when Bakura was around, it didn't matter whether he was Ryo, or the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, Amiee always left her vessel to her own devices.

"So you like to cook?" he persisted in his reserved manner.

"Look," Amy growled, "can we talk about something besides me?!"

The white haired sweetie (or arse-clown, depending on which one was in control at the time) was taken aback, unsure of how to really respond. "Um, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure what else to talk about. I live in this direction, so there wasn't really anywhere else to go..."

A sudden noise cut off Bakura. Another sudden noise followed. Amy got the perfect chance to be sarcastic. "We could talk about that."

One of Bakura's bags had ripped at the bottom and some of him belongings had tumbled onto the ground. A loaf of bread, some instant food, canned food, and various other of Bakura's purchases were scattered about. "Oh dear!" he blurted, British and panicky. He knelt to the ground, setting the other bag down and gathering up the reminiscence. And with a sign, Amy knelt down to help.

"How do we always end up picking crap up together I swear to gwad." she muttered, shoving the useless batteries in her pocket.

He looked up, some items in hand. "I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, I'm sure." she huffed, getting up with the bread in one arm and a bento in the other.

"What am I going to do now?"

"They all won't fit in the bag, that's for sure. Unless you want to be in the same position two minutes from now." she grabbed a few more things. "Before you panic anymore, I'll help you bring them to your apartment." Bakura opened his mouth to say something before he was cut off by more Amy. "And if you're going to say anything with the word 'appreciate' in it, I swear gwad..."

He shut his mouth.

"Better." she motioned, arms fill with convenience store products and waiting. "Lead the way."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"WHY" Amy shouted, as Bakura opened the door to the apartment, "THE [4filter] DO YOU LIVE ON THE SIXTH [4filter] FLOOR?!" She marched into the room in an angry exaggerated fashion, passing the _Agari kamachi_ and into the hall.

Bakura struggled to get his key out of the door fast enough to catch up with the raging female. "Amy! Stop shouting, you'll disturb the neighbors! And your shoes!" He then struggled to change into his slippers fast enough to catch up with her.

"[4filter] MY SHOES. TELL ME WHICH DOOR TO GO THROUGH."

"Shouldn't we go back and get the bread you dropped first?"

"[4filter] THE BREAD!"

Baukra opened a door on right nearby where she stood. "Over here..."

She ran into the room and dropped the what was left of her armful of groceries. He came in soon after and set the bag down on the small table. She let out a huff. "Finally. I try to do something nice and I end up climbing Mount Everest." He just responded with an anime sweat drop and an nervous smile, unsure of what else to do. That is, until Amy's stomach made her hunger a public matter again. The only thing the female could do in response to her noisy belly was blush.

"If you don't have anywhere to be, you're welcome to stay for dinner." he smiled politely, still a little nervous, "It's the least I could do after all the help."

Amy looked the other way, too embarrassed to make eye contact. "...If I stay then I guess I should go change my shoes..." she muttered. Bakura just nodded like that was something that would be appreciated.

Entering the hallway for the second time, she actually got the chance to take a good look around. The hall wasn't very wide, and the ceiling was a dark color. Other then that, the place looked completely ordinary, wall color, room set up, everything. Still, counting the rooms left Amy a little puzzled. She slipped her shoes off and located the guest slippers. There were too many rooms for a high school student living on his own, but too few rooms for a family_. _

Guest slippers. Amy looked down at the slippers in her hand, and they looked practically new. She examined the few other pairs, which all were in the same state. None of them looked like they were used daily. "Hey Bakura." Amy called. She thought out the wording to this question very carefully, not wanting to sound totally, completely rude. "Is it alright with everyone else if intrude on dinner?"

Bakura peeked out the door. "There's no one else here."

"Oh. Okay. Your parents work late or something?"

He should his head. "No, just me. I live by myself."

Amy's eye twitched slightly in response,_ 'What kind of highschooler who lives alone has this big of an apartment.'_

Thinking that prying any further would not only be rude, by apt to get her kicked out, Amy just shrugged. "Righto." She slipped the footwear on and joined Bakura.

"Are instant noodles alright? I know it's not much, but I forgot to go grocery shopping this week, so what I have from the convenience store is pretty much all I have right now."

Knowing what she had carried up, as well as spotting the few things in the other bag, Amy came to a different conclusion. One single bento, a few instant meals, and some other miscellaneous things. It was clear that this was only enough food for a day or two, and maybe, just maybe, some traveling meals. Bakura was lying to her. He didn't forget to buy groceries, he was preparing for the trip to Duelist Kingdom and the day and a half before it. This set Amy on alert, more then ever questioning which Bakura she was in the presence of.

With her lack of resonance, Bakura threw out another suggestion out there. "I got this fried chicken from the convenience store. It's a little colder now, but it's still good. I can heat that if you like."

"Agh!" this jolted the female out of analysis mode. "One does not simply reheat fried chicken. Gwad!" She scrambled over to where he was pulling out the fried chicken. "You said you have instant noodles, didn't you? And you must have some of those 'don't go bad condiments', somewhere, right?"

He looked surprise by her sudden outburst. "I..um, I could look."

"Alright then, I'll take that chicken and you start heating up a few blocks of those noodles."

He gave her the chicken reluctantly, no less confused then he was a second ago. "Just the noodles?"

She brought the bag over to the table and shifted some things out of the way. "Just the noodles." The surviving bag she went to lift up and physically went to move, when a piece of paper underneath it caught her eye. The paper looked like the begging of a letter. It was only a quick glance she took at it, but enough to feel like it was something personal she shouldn't of seen_. _

_Dear Amane,_

_How are you? You and mother must be busy. Your brother is. Aside from school, which is always keeping me busy, I've been preparing for a short trip. There was a tournament I heard about and thought it might be fun to go..._

_"_What about the rest of the stuff in the cup?" Baukra's voice cut through the words. Amy threw the bag back onto of it in a panic, and use to page to slide the bag across the table instead. She tried to hide the look of guilt that comes from looking at something so personal, but ultimately failed to.

"Just, um, throw it in a bag or something."

He shrugged, and did so, while Amy started taking the skin off of the fried chicken. Embarrassment was still written all over her expression. "You got any vegetables or something? I know you don't have any fresh, but you got any canned or frozen?"

"I might."

"Fan- freaking- tastic." she muttered, anything to keep him from turning around. She started pulling the now skinless chicken apart into smaller bits. She heard the sound of the chunks of dried noodle falling into a pot of water. They would be soft and ready in a few minutes. Then, she heard Bakura open a can. "Grab me a skillet while you're at it." she added.

He nodded looking back, "Are you sure you have time for this? This preparation is taking an awfully long time..."

She shrugged. "I've got nowhere to be. My house is kind of... being pest bombed." Amy reflected on how much lying she had been doing lately. It was weird how so much of what she said was a lie. As kid, Amy had always been good at stretching the truth to cover things up. It was those reasons that made her so sure she was – as the expression goes – going to hell, and yet those same magic fibbing abilities were saving her butt right now.

"Oh." he had pulled out a small skillet now. "So are you staying with Yugi or Téa?"

Amy stopped to think about her response. "Something like that. I need vegetable oil." She took the skillet and chicken, and when she got the oil, Amy turned the stove on and started cooking. And she couldn't help but smirk. "Ready for some ghetto stir-fri?"

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Amy's attention was torn again. She was looking up at Bakura's apartment building, all six floors of it. At the same time, her cell phone was up to her, ringing. A female voice answered on the other end.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Téa was sitting at her desk, watching her pink curtains wave in and out. "Did that really happen Yugi?"

She was on the phone, had been for a while. Téa had already had her dinner and bath, and was settling down to finish a few problems of homework she had left.

"Yeah..." Yugi answered from the other end of the call.

"That's weird." Téa was previously holding the phone on her shoulder, but now picked it up and held it in her hand. "Tristan wouldn't just attack one his friends. At least without good reason." She looked down at her other hand, picturing the symbol the four of them shared. The sharpie marker symbol that bonded the four of them together. She couldn't help but feel like Amy was to blame for this; Amy wasn't apart of that pact.

"I don't know what happened before. Joey and I missed the beginning... I'm not sure he's the one who actually started it." There was an exhaustion in his voice. He just wasn't sure what to do.

This sent a sad tinge through Tea's heart. She didn't know how to cheer him up. "It'll be alright. I'm sure there's a good reason for it." she attempted to sound encouraging, although not believing a word of it herself. I don't have to remind you that Téa has this one distinctive passivise quality. She doesn't understand why people have to fight, never mind why friends should fight. You remember all of her soliloquies through out the series regarding it. I don't have to waste your time and mine going through it.

There was beep in the middle of the conversation that distracted her from what she was saying. She pulled the phone back for a second, seeing that there was an incoming call. "I've got to go Yugi. There's another call coming in."

"Okay," he answered after a minute, "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Night Téa." Then he hung up before she could say goodbye herself. Téa looked down at her phone, thinking about how everything was piling on Yugi's plate at once, and how hard it must be. She was sad for him. Then, Téa picked up the next call.

"Amy?"

Amy voice came through other end. "Hey Téa..."

She looked to her ceiling, "What's up?"

"Can I ask a favor? Man I have been racking up favors lately..." she sounded frustrated when mentioning the term "favors".

Téa crossed her legs. "Huh, sure."

"Can I crash at your place tonight? Mine's kind of being bombed for bugs. My parents thought it was a good idea to clean it up while I was away at Duelist Kingdom, but they started a day too soon."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Our OC unbuttoned her uniform top. Underneath there was a white tank top. _'I'm proud of you, asking for a place to stay. Even with your pride.'_ Amiee appeared next her and smiled.

_'Yeah well, it's not like Tea had anything to do with the fight, so it doesn't really count.' _She thought back, defending her choice of action.

The door opened behind her, and Amy pressed her clothes against her chest with a panic. Téa came into the room. "We just got rid of my old clothes. I was able to find of my old nightgowns though." She had a white gown draped over her arm as she turned around and closed the door.

Amy tried not to flinch. It wasn't the gown that bothered her, it was the fact that she was half naked when the other female walked in. But she remembered that this was Japan, and all of the pop culture references told her that girls her age were supposedly comfortable with exposing their bodies to other girls. If girls could wash the backs of there friends in a bathhouse, then she should have the guts to turn around. She was still wearing her tank top after all. Anything less would be an overreaction.

So, she let out a breath and turned around. "Thanks. That would be nice."

Téa looked surprised. "You wear a tank top under the other layers of the uniform?"

The other nodded. "It's a habit." She reluctantly let go of the uniform top, setting it down of Téa's bed. Arms exposed, there's a new piece of visual information that I'm obligated to let you know about. On Amy's left shoulder, there was a mark. A scar. To be more specific, a burn scar. It started on her shoulder, and extended about an inch onto her back. The scar was by no means fresh looking, but faded, looking quite comfortable in her skin.

Téa saw it as well, only she wasn't as subtle as I was while announcing it. "What happened to your arm?"

This made Amy a tad bit self conscious. "It's just an old burn. The reminisce of an everyday household accident." she turned to the side and lifted her tank top off, hoping she wasn't being too open, and quickly slipped the nightgown on. She shimmied her skirt off from underneath the nightgown, which covered her entire arms, but only went down to her knees.

Téa got the feeling that Amy didn't want to talk about it anymore, so she gracefully dropped the subject. Instead, she changed it to girl talk. Agh. Yes girl talk. Amy looked over to her after, and for a minute, she looked like a complete Lolita. The background might as well changed to pink and bubbles and flower outlines might have well appeared behind her.

"You look so cute." Tea commented, happily squealing over her female friend.

Amy's eyes got bigger for a second, then they narrowed with a blush. "W-why do you make that sound like a good thing? It's awful!" she held her arms out, "I look like a kid!"

"You know, you're about the as tall as Yugi." she commented.

"Yeah, but at least he's not done growing! We're girls! We're all done growing! I'm going to be short forever!" she blurted. After that, Amy gathered up the clothes she had scattered all over Téa's bed and folded them.

Téa giggled, finding it nice to have some female companionship. "My mom can put those through the wash tonight."

Where she was expecting an oblivious "Yes", after all who doesn't wash their clothes, Amy answered with a quick, "No thanks. I'll use the machines at school." before stacking her folded clothes up. Téa was surprised, unsure of how to respond. Asking had really only been a formality. Although Amy had seemed perfectly normal a minute ago, Téa was reminded just how unconventional the female was.


End file.
